The Choice
by Nodakskip
Summary: After Angel's group in LA is broken apart, Cordy goes back to Sunnydale.


**Title: **The Choice

**Authors:** Nodakskip and Starway Man

**Disclaimer:** We own nothing with regard to BtVS and AtS. That's all Joss. And Mutant Enemy, WB, UPN, Fox, Sandollar etc. etc. ad infinitum. There are some parts of this story that are taken directly from the Buffy or Angel episodes in question, and so do not belong to us either.

**Feedback:** We'd love to hear what you think!

**Acknowledgments:** Thanks to Francis Eugene for beta'ing this fanfic, and all the incredible input in terms of ideas and plot development. And thanks to Buffyworld too, for the transcripts consulted in the writing of this story.

**Category:** AU, Angel/Buffy crossover, Action/Adventure

**Warnings:** Some bad language, violence and character death is present.

**Main characters**: Xander, Cordelia, ensemble

**Setting:** Initially takes place in BtVS season 5 during 'Checkpoint', and sometime after 'Redefinition' in Angel season 2, and progresses from there.

**Summary:** Cordelia Chase goes back home to Sunnydale, and everything changes.

**Hyperion Hotel Basement, Los Angeles, California**

**January 12th 2001**

Angel didn't pause for a moment as he threw the knives into the old dartboard. He had heard the old door open; only the smell of a certain familiar perfume gave him pause now. "Go away, Cordelia."

He started to go to remove the three blades he had tossed, when a crossbow bolt flew from the top of the stairs and nailed the center of the dartboard.

Well, it got his attention at least. Annoyed, the 250-year-old vampire turned to his former employee. "I fired you-"

"Oh, I know you did."

Angel stopped for a second at the coldness in her voice. Then he said emotionlessly, "It's nothing personal. But I can't work with you here. I need to stop pretending to be human. Trying to be something I'm not."

Cordelia set the crossbow down on the top stair, and slowly walked down the old staircase. "And I'll bet in your ever so broody little mind, that even makes sense somehow. You know, when you first fired all of us, I thought for sure you couldn't do this without me. I'm the Vision Girl around here, you know! And you're my – were my – best friend. But you could have left boot imprints on my skirt from kicking me out that way-"

"Go home," Angel said simply and dismissively.

"It's really that easy for you, huh?" Ms. Chase asked, looking hurt and even a little confused. "Angel, back when you and Doyle initially agreed about me working with you guys, I was like a scared little kid. I came the closest I have ever come to begging for anything in my entire life! I'd never been so low. But you grew to mean something to me that I once never would have believed possible-"

"Is there a point to all this?" Angel interrupted, trying his best to sound as much of a jerk as possible.

Hurt and confusion finally became anger as Cordelia released a pissed-off growl at his tone. "My God, but you're just making this so damn easy for me aren't you?"

"Easy?" Angel grunted, just wanting her to be done with the big speech and gone.

"Do you remember my cousin that I recently told you about?" Cordelia asked. "The one that I was very close to, before I left Sunnydale?"

Angel just looked at her, remaining silent, his face a mask of pure indifference.

"Well, you killed her," Cordelia said simply.

"Look, Cordelia," Angel impatiently started to say. "Back when I was Angelus I killed a lot of people-"

"No. Angelus didn't kill her," Cordelia said at once, cutting him off. "YOU did! Not Angelus. Angel, you, soul and all."

"What the hell are you talking about?" the Champion demanded in evident frustration.

Cordy took out a five by seven photo from her pocket and showed it to her former boss. Angel barely glanced at the picture of two young girls, Cordelia being one of them. "You wanna know what happened to her?"

"I. Don't. Care," Angel said, fed up and almost losing his temper.

"Well, you better START caring!" Cordelia snapped, with a tear falling from her eyes. "One of Elizabeth's old friends needed help when a co-worker called in sick last month. So my cousin went to help serve food and drinks at a party...at Holland Manners' cocktail party."

Angel looked up at that. "What?"

"My mom called and broke the news to me. She said some wild animals broke into the guy's mansion and killed just about everyone in the house," Cordelia snorted. "Yeah, right. My cousin's drained body was found near the bar, and Darla and Dru probably got high as a kite feeding off of her!"

Angel's façade dropped for a moment. "You're mistaken, that was all Wolfram and-"

Cordelia surprised the ensouled vamp by reaching out and angrily slapping him across the face. "You didn't even bother to check, did you? You just locked them all into that basement and let those two undead bitches massacre everyone! Did you even stay around to hear their screams, you bastard!"

Angel looked at her, shocked. "There really were waiters there that night?"

"Yeah! And I guess pausing to check on that would have ruined your big dramatic moment, huh?" Cordelia said spitefully. "God, I can't believe how I always defended you! Whenever I was on the phone with Xander and he'd start with the Deadboy cracks, I'd tell him that you were a good guy now, that you helped people and all that."

"You talked to him?" Angel asked in astonishment. "Since when? And why? I thought you hated that guy."

Cordelia stared at her ex-boss in sudden fury. "I just told you that you fed my cousin to your vamp 'family', and all you wanna talk about is why I've kept in touch with an ex-boyfriend? What the HELL is wrong with you!"

"Well – I, I didn't mean it like that-" the vampire sputtered a little at hearing her profanity.

"I don't give a damn anymore, Angel," Cordelia said with a cold look. "I just want you to know I've had it. I don't know what Wesley and Gunn are going to do, but I will not stay here and watch whatever it is you've become go completely psycho!"

She started for the stairs, but then stopped. "One last thing. Don't try to find me, see me or even talk to me again. Or so help me God, I will stake you on sight – or at least die trying."

"Cordy!" Angel called out, as she stormed up the stairs and slammed the door.

For a moment the vampire was tempted to chase after her. But then slowly, methodically, Angel put his former seer and friend out of his mind and went about setting up the dartboard again.

**Cordelia's apartment, 141 Embury Street, Silverlake**

**Two hours later**

Cordelia sat in the hot bath, not moving at all. The radio was playing music, but what music it was she couldn't have told anyone. The outside world was utterly meaningless to her at the moment. For the third time in her life everything was suddenly and completely turned upside down and shook around.

She had spoken to Gunn and Wes on the phone earlier, and learned some disturbing news. Wesley had gotten an offer from some demon-hunting outfit back in London. Upon learning that Gunn had decided to rejoin his gang full-time and forget about his 'side gig', as he called it, Wes had decided to accept the job. His new employers would even be paying for his airfare back home.

Thus Cordelia understood she now had no salary, no co-workers, no friends she could count on, nothing. She was right back where she'd started from in LA, 18 months ago: unemployed, with few prospects, and unable to even afford next month's rent on the apartment.

"You are gravely mistaken. You only have nothing when you have utterly no hope left."

Cordelia's eyes snapped open at the sound of the voice and she nearly screamed. She was no longer in her bathtub. Heck, she was nowhere in LA that she knew of at all. All traces of water were gone from her body and she was still naked.

In a field of yellow flowers?

"There is no need for fear, child," came a voice from behind her. "Nothing will harm you here."

Cordy spun around to see a beautiful, yet also naked, black woman standing a few feet from her. "What the hell is this!"

"Hell is very much NOT what this place is," the black woman told her disapprovingly. "And to answer your question more exactly, this is a...representation. Something that your mind can easily comprehend and be comfortable with in order for us to better communicate. For in truth, we are within a higher plane of existence. One of the highest ones around, actually."

"And the whole nudity thing?" Ms. Chase demanded. Higher plane, huh? Probably a lesbo one too, what with the big old nakedness factor...

"Clothing is not natural," the other woman told her, amused at hearing Cordy's thoughts. "You are born naked into the world of the living. And here pride, modesty, and shyness mean nothing."

"So, no clothes?" asked the brunette helplessly. And puh-lease, you can NOT tell me that Rodeo Drive and all its shoe shops are unnatural!

"No," the woman replied, again amused from perceiving Cordelia's opinions. "That is the whole point, child. For you not to try to hide behind masks or appearances. Not here and not now."

"Fine. Then why am I...wherever this is?" Cordelia demanded, crossing her arms and giving up trying to hide herself.

"You have reached a turning point in your life," the higher being told her. "And you must make a decision on where to go from here. However, you must look deep within yourself honestly, without any of the illusions you so often hide behind, in order to make it."

"Hey!" Cordelia snapped.

"Did I not say pride means nothing here?" The woman narrowed her eyes and Cordelia suddenly felt a chill run down her back. "Hear me well, Cordelia Chase. This is the most important moment of your existence...for you must choose wisely. The fate of your world could literally depend on what path you choose to follow from this moment on."

**The apartment of Xander Harris and Anya Jenkins, Sunnydale, California**

**January 13th 2001**

Xander got up from eating his reheated pizza to answer the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey, Xander," the low-key female voice said.

"Cordy?" Xander asked, surprised. "Hi. How've ya been?"

**The Magic Box, Sunnydale, California**

**Later that night**

Xander completely ignored the newly-arrived Watchers from England as he came into the closed shop. "Giles?" he called out. "I need to talk to you."

Quentin Travers looked up from the lighted table. "Young man, if you don't mind we are quite busy here-"

"'Busy' as in sitting around on your butts drinking tea all day long?" Xander asked sarcastically, Quentin's upperclass British accent instantly grating on his nerves. "Or maybe you're busy thinking up more of those pointless tests and interviews?" Xander then put Quentin out of his mind rather than wasting any more time on this conversation, as he looked to the only real Watcher around in his book. "Giles, please. This is important."

"Very well, Xander," Giles said, rising with a look of relief at getting away from all the Council politicking. "Let's go into the back room."

"Rupert?" Travers asked, surprised. "For heaven's sake, whatever this boy wants to tell you cannot possibly-"

"This 'boy', as you call him," Giles interrupted darkly, "has personally done more to rid Sunnydale of the Council's enemies – vampires and evil demons alike – than your entire family has done over the last 200 years, I'd wager. This is the Hellmouth, so if Xander says something's important, then I have no doubts that it's important. Excuse me, all, I'll be back in a few moments."

Travers sent an annoyed glare to the other Watchers as Giles and Xander marched off, and then he saw Dawn Summers looking smugly at him. What are you looking at, you ignorant young colonial brat?

**Magic Box Back Room**

**A few moments later**

"Alright, Xander, what is it?" Giles asked, as the door was closed.

Harris sat on the desk with a sigh. "I'm afraid we got trouble with a capital T. See, Cordy called me tonight. She wants to come back here, to Sunnydale."

Giles' eyebrows went up. "Really?" he asked. "Why? It was my understanding she was working well with Angel and Wesley in Los Angeles, along with some other chap."

"Guy named Gunn, yeah. But apparently, he's now out of the picture, and Wes is headed back to merry olde England. And as for Deadboy...um, you've heard of that evil law firm that's always doggin' his heels?" Xander asked.

Giles nodded "Yes, Wolfram and Hart. It, uh, it has branches in every single continent on Earth, I gather. Far too entrenched for the Council to ever do anything about destroying or even crippling them, I'm afraid."

"Well, Cordy told me Angel's completely lost it," Xander told him. "That he let Darla and Drusilla 'eat' a bunch of their lawyers."

"My word!" Giles said in shocked surprise, as he took off his glasses. Then he frowned, "Wait a moment...Darla's alive again?"

Xander nodded. "Cordy said she would explain it to me in detail later. But the important part is Angel locked up a lot of people with two deadly vampires, and let them all get slaughtered," Harris said, upset.

"He's had a moment of happiness, he-he-he must be Angelus again-" Giles started.

"Cordy says not," Xander stopped his train of thought. "I thought so too at first, but apparently he's not free-range evil from what she said. Just nuts, or stupid, or maybe even nuts AND stupid. In fact, when Cordy and her friends told Angel that what he did was a damn huge no-no, he fired them all!"

"This is most troubling," Giles said firmly. "Did, uh, did Angel say why he did this?"

Xander just looked ill. "Apparently because he has to stop living like a human to fight the demons. Cor mentioned something about soft beds and being something he's not."

Giles sat in his desk chair. "Good Lord, but this couldn't have come at a worse time. We must not tell Buffy about this right now," he told Xander. "If she shows any weakness while the Council is observing her-"

"Like going to LA and trying to talk some sense into the brooding wonder?"

"Yes," Giles replied. "Like it or not, Glory's far more important right now. After she's dealt with...then we shall have to deal with Angel, somehow."

"Well, Cordy thinks she can help with the Glory bit," Xander said. "She said some guys called the Powers That Be gave her visions of people in trouble for Angel to save. But now that Angel's cut all ties with his crew, Cordy says someone Up There told her that her visions will be changed to help us."

Giles looked optimistic. "Good, good. Foreknowledge of what Glory is doing or planning would be a very big help, yes. After all, we bloody well have nothing on her yet!" He thought for a moment. "Uh, as I vaguely recall, she had some aspirations to become a Hollywood actress or some such nonsense. So does Cordelia only plan to help us with the current situation?"

"No," Xander answered with a shrug. "Told ya, she had a big discussion with one of the PTBs. So Cordy's moving back here permanently. And she said to ask if you needed another helper around here."

"I suppose," the Watcher replied thoughtfully. "The Magic Box has picked up in business as of late. Another pair of hands would be useful."

"Just as long as she doesn't have to wear a nametag, then we're good," Xander interrupted with a nostalgic smirk. "Anyway, only you, me, her and Anya will know what the hell's going on in LA."

"Anya?" Giles asked. "Ah, Xander, is that wise? I mean, Anya is, is..." Giles stuttered, trying to say this as politely as he could. "Your significant other does have this annoying tendency to, to, to simply blurt out whatever it is she's thinking."

Xander sighed. "Can't be helped. And it's too late anyway. Cordy's going to be staying in the spare bedroom in our apartment and she's bringing her roommate ghost along as well. So I have to tell Ahn the truth. I mean, I can't just let my ex-girlfriend move in and tell my current girlfriend, an ex-vengeance demon, nothing!"

"I see your point," Giles acknowledged. "Well, is there anything else?"

Xander looked down, not wanting to say this but knowing the Watcher needed to hear it. "Angel locked a bunch of people in a room with a couple of vampires. Well...uh, one of the waiters at the house that night was a cousin of Cordelia's, and they killed her as well. I think...no, I'm pretty sure that's part of why she wants to come back here: Cordy knows that we can still tell the difference between right and wrong. That...and she doesn't think she can be in the same room with Angel anymore without it turning into a bloodbath."

**Main Street, Sunnydale, California**

**February 15th 2001**

Anya Jenkins was not in a good mood.

She was driving along in her car, wanting to get back home after working hours as soon as possible. Even if ever since Cordelia Chase and her ghost had moved in the place had gotten so damned crowded it wasn't funny! Because lately, Anya had definitely been able to pick up on the 'vibe'. The one when two women were interested in the same man, that is.

All right, the Chase woman hadn't actually said or done anything wrong, and was even looking for a decent place of her own so she could finally get out of their hair. But she and Xander had a history that Anya was well aware of. Nor had tensions been helped by some recent awkward domestic situations, such as Cordelia bending over to help get dinner out of the oven and inadvertently giving Xander quite an eyeful of her shapely butt and long slim legs.

Anya had been in existence for over a thousand years, both as a human and a demon. And thus during her glory days as Anyanka she had seen this little drama played out before her in all its possible forms.

First there were the glances, then there was the flirting, and then the temptation. Then came the betrayal. And then, once discovered, came the thing the former Aud used to love more than anything: vengeance.

All of a sudden, as Anya was motoring along, everything around her seemed to freeze in place. Even the traffic lights were stuck on amber. Ms. Jenkins instantly slammed down on the brakes before she hit someone, and guided the vehicle to a stop.

"What the heck is going on here?" Anya demanded of no one in particular after she got out of the car.

Suddenly, in a flash of light and cloud of smoke, someone appeared to answer her questions. The smoke cleared and Anya recognized D'hoffryn: the self-styled Lord of Arash'mahar, he that turns the air to blood and rain to ashes, the chief 'justice' demon that had existed just this side of forever.

"Good evening, Anyanka."

"D'hoffryn? What's going on? And what are you doing here?" Anya wanted to know, again briefly looking around at the frozen town in amazement.

"This? Merely a little something to ensure we have some privacy. And I can't just drop by to say hello to an old friend?" the pasty-faced demon lord asked innocently.

Anya knew D'hoffryn like no one else did, having been his favorite for centuries. "What do you want from me?" she asked bluntly.

"Ah, so very direct as always. How I've missed it! And you." The demon stroked his tufted beard as he circled around his former employee.

"You want me to come back into the fold," Anya stated rather than asked, her intuition working overtime.

D'hoffryn suddenly looked to have lost his good humor. "No, as matter of fact, it's...exactly the opposite."

"What ARE you talking about?" Anya demanded in confusion.

D'hoffryn began to explain how, because of her unique status, the woman had been selected by the Powers That Be for a great task on a different plane of existence. Anya had demonstrated how living as a human had eventually overcome the desire to become a vengeance demon again, and had also led to her being part of the good fight against evil. Both these things had greatly impressed some of the higher powers. And with over a thousand years of experience under her belt, it had been enough for them to offer her a place within their realm to help watch over humanity.

"That has GOT to be the biggest load of drivel I've ever heard in my life," Anya said simply. "What are you really up to, D'hoffryn?"

"Oh, it's no joke, I assure you." The demon lord looked almost nauseated, "In fact, if we're going to be honest, the whole thing makes me sick to my stomach even to contemplate. The mere concept that one of my girls-"

"Former girls," Anya corrected.

D'hoffryn shrugged. "As you say. But you were what you were. And for the legendary Anyanka to join the other side like this...well, if it wasn't for the fact that I owed a favor to the intermediary who contacted me, I can assure you that we would NOT be having this conversation right now."

Anya simply couldn't help it. She suddenly believed him. Thus the young woman gaped, "You're actually serious! Me...become a higher being? With all the cheating males I've killed over the centuries?"

D'hoffryn nodded. "I don't understand it either, unless it's simply a ploy to make me lose face in front of my peers. But then the whys and wherefores regarding this obvious insanity need not truly concern me. All that was required was my informing you of the situation, which I have done. Everything else is up to you."

"Right. So, so, what happens now?" Anya was officially freaked.

"You're being called to your new destiny, I'm sure you can feel it by now. If you choose to accept I expect you'll soon be on your way to wherever it is you're going," D'hoffryn replied.

"What, right NOW!" the woman said in shock. "Look, if all this is on the up and up, it's a great offer and all but – but what about Xander? I love him, and I don't want to lose him!"

D'hoffryn just raised an eyebrow, his horned demonic features looking momentarily amused. "Come now, Anyanka, you're a big girl. You of all people should know how a calling such as this easily transcends ephemeral human love."

"No! I can't just leave without telling him the situation! I mean, why does all this have to take place right now?" Anya demanded.

"I don't know details. But there's work to be done in the higher realms, apparently, and your presence is required as soon as possible," her old boss replied.

"Then I'm not going!" Anya got a look of comprehension on her face. "Oh, wait a minute. This is a test from the Powers That Be, isn't it? For whether I'm worthy of the job...whether or not I allow Xander to talk me out of it, which given my feelings he'd be sure to do."

D'hoffryn said nothing, just staring at the human female with a poker face.

"Can I..." Anya stopped, berating herself. "No, I already know the answer to that, don't I? It really is now or never." Suddenly she looked to have had an epiphany, and stared hard at D'hoffryn. "That's why Cordelia Chase got sent back into Xander's life, isn't it? One of the Powers arranged for her to come here, to take my place with him. Because they believed I would decide to say yes to this little request of theirs. Am I wrong or what?"

D'hoffryn just looked ill again. "I take it you've made your decision."

Anya looked down and suddenly found herself clothed in white. She looked shocked before saying slowly, "I don't understand how or why, but...for some reason I know it's right. I know that somehow, some way, this...this is the right thing to do."

"Anyanka..."

Golden sparkles began to appear around Anya and she started to float upwards in a column of white light. D'hoffryn turned away in distaste, refusing to watch his one-time second-in-command ascend higher and higher into the sky and join the ranks of the enemy.

The cone of light abruptly shrank and then winked out of existence. D'hoffryn vanished too and time resumed for the citizens of the Hellmouth.

There was a reason for this so-called madness, if the truth be told. Anya now wouldn't get left at the altar, inadvertently cause her friend Halfrek's death and then later die herself in battle against the forces of evil, all of which the PTBs had foreseen...

**Spike's crypt, Sunnydale, California**

**February 16th 2001**

Things had progressed rather quickly after Anya began a brand new existence far away from the mouth of Hell.

For one thing, the insane female vampire called Drusilla had arrived in town. She had subsequently found Spike and Harmony in his cozy little cemetery home. The former William the Bloody had almost immediately dumped his undead girlfriend for his returned sire. And later, upon bringing her wayward childe to the Bronze, Dru had killed a couple of kids for them to feed on.

Somewhat tellingly, Spike had hesitated but nonetheless fed on that warm, rich human blood, his inner conflict not lasting long due to the lack of a soul.

When the Chosen One had later come around to his crypt and discovered the Buffy shrine therein, William had let Dru first knock her out with a taser and then zapped Drusilla himself before tying them both up. Because he was through playing around here.

That was why Spike had admitted to the imprisoned Buffy when both she and his sire had woken up, "I love you." But after the blonde had thoroughly rejected him, even after he'd offered to kill Drusilla for her, the male vampire snarled, "If you don't admit that there's something there...some tiny feeling for me...then I'll untie Dru, and let her kill you instead!"

The female undead nodded quickly. "Yes, please. I like that game much more!"

Spike ignored that, focusing only on the human girl that against all odds he truly had fallen in love with. "Just...give me something. A crumb...a barest smidgen. Tell me...maybe, someday, there's a chance."

Buffy looked intensely at the former William Pratt, as the undead guy moved right up close to her. Finally she said, "Spike...the only chance you ever had with me was when I was unconscious."

Now that was unexpected, and Spike was puzzled by what the Slayer really meant. "What..." It took a while, but the self-confessed slayer of two of Buffy's predecessors made an expression of extreme frustration when he finally got what the blond was saying. "Ughhhh!"

The vampire then threw the stake away, stomping off and releasing a loud angry yell. "Gaaah! What the bleedin' hell is wrong with you bloody women? What the hell does it take? Why...do you bitches torture me like this?" he demanded.

Ms. Summers looked at him in obvious contempt. "Which question do you want me to answer first?"

Spike was about to go on another rant when he heard something in the main area of the crypt upstairs.

"Buffy? Buffy!" a male voice quickly cried out.

"Oh no, the bloody whelp's 'ere?" William muttered in annoyance, recognizing Xander's voice.

"Buffy!"

Spike recognized a female voice this time, one he had truly grown to dislike. Upon her return to the old home town, the bloody chit had regaled the Scoobies with the tale of how he had tortured Peaches for the Gem of Amarra in LA. She'd had the stones to make it look as if he was the bad guy, just for attempting to retrieve his stolen property!

And the way the Little Bit and Joyce had drawn away from him – reminded of what Spike really was – truly had hurt his feelings. "That's all I need, another bint to bollix up the plan!" Spike muttered.

"Xander, Cordy! Down here!" Buffy called out as she began tugging at the chains connecting her to the archway.

At that moment Drusilla started struggling with the ropes imprisoning her. Xander and Cordelia finally made their way downstairs just in time to see Dru, who'd managed to get free, yank the pole out of the earth and deliver a well-aimed strike to Buffy's head.

"Buffy!" Xander yelled in horror.

The Slayer went out like a light, her head starting to bleed heavily from the wound.

"Oh no, we're too late!" Cordy looked equally horrified, her latest vision in Xander's apartment having brought them here.

Xander looked up and saw two vampires he had always despised standing over the unconscious body of his friend. The construction worker snarled out as he raised his cross, "Both of you – back the hell away from her!"

Drusilla slowly obeyed, her eyes narrowing. "Kitten..."

"Shut up! MOVE!" Harris shouted, pure hate in his eyes and a stake in his other hand. "And you try anything funny with that hypnosis crap, Dru, you're dust in the wind!"

As Spike instinctively moved away, he looked at Xander with a number of thoughts beginning to take form in his head. And foremost was the concept that unlike the others in the Slayer's little group, this little wanker had never once forgotten what he was.

Granted that had been wise of the man, and it had given Spike some miniscule measure of self-respect as a bloodsucker where there was otherwise none, but that was a double-edged sword. As although Xander may have allowed himself to accept Buffy's orders not to kill Spike, under the assumption his enemy was effectively neutered by the chip, with this little escapade all bets were most assuredly off.

The English vampire knew that even if the Slayer hadn't threatened to stake him mere moments ago, Droopy Boy would certainly do it now at the first opportunity. To protect those he loved, Spike had no doubts that the annoying git wouldn't rest until he was ashes. And thanks to the chip, he couldn't effectively fight back.

Ergo, it was time to get the heck outta the Hellmouth. Love was all well and good, but personal survival had to come first and all that.

So Spike grabbed Drusilla's hand, who got a look of astonishment and delight on her face, before moving towards the ladder leading upstairs. But as fate would have it, at that exact same moment Harmony jumped down into the crypt's lower level.

"Spike!" the blond airhead yelled just as Xander began to examine Buffy's chains. "Oh, I just KNEW I'd find you here with that bitch, Drood-zilla!"

"Harmony?" Cordelia asked in shock. No one had told her that her one-time best friend was in town and had taken up carrying a crossbow. "What are you doing here?"

Surprised, the undead Ms. Kendall turned towards that very familiar voice, but unfortunately her grip on the crossbow slipped and the wooden bolt sailed out – hitting Buffy in the side.

"NO!" Xander screamed, as his hero's wounds became far more life-threatening. At once he began attending to the injury, as Buffy's lifeblood quickly stained both his hands red.

"Oh, oops!" Vamp Harmony said apologetically, as she let the crossbow drop to the ground. "Uh, sorry about that I guess, because I actually came here to shoot my former blondie bear!"

Spike and Drusilla chose that moment to exit the crypt, vanishing upwards and away as Cordelia glared at her fellow former cheerleader. "You just shot Buffy, you idiot!"

"HEY!" Harmony vamped out at the insult. "She IS my arch-nemesis, you know!"

Cordelia's eyes widened, shocked for the second time in almost as many seconds, before she brought up her crucifix and made Harmony back off.

Ignoring the exchange, Xander desperately tried to staunch the flow of blood hemorrhaging out of Buffy's upper body. But he couldn't unchain the Slayer now that Spike had left and taken the key. "HARMONY! Get over here and yank these chains loose, or I swear to God the only way you're leaving this crypt is in a Dust Buster!"

The young vampiress looked around and saw Cordelia now holding up both her cross and stake. So with a shrug Harm obeyed orders, figuring this ultimate high school loser and her ex-best friend would be too busy worrying about their precious Slayer to try to kill her after she did what they wanted.

Harmony was right. Xander just carried Buffy as gently as he could to the exit. Cordelia briefly looked at the demonized version of Harmony Kendall as if contemplating whether to stake her, but finally decided her priorities had to lie elsewhere.

"Oh, pooh!" Vamp Harmony looked around unhappily when she was all alone. "Well, I guess I can just leave Spike a note that it's all over between us. I wonder what Los Angeles is like this time of year?"

**Sunnydale General Hospital, Sunnydale, California**

**A short while later**

The Scooby gang was assembled and anxiously waiting word on Buffy's status.

Giles, Joyce and Dawn had been the first to arrive, summoned by Cordelia on her cell phone after Xander had carried the unconscious Slayer in through the hospital's emergency room doors. Willow and Tara had arrived after the Summers girl had gone into surgery.

Anya, however, was nowhere to be found.

It's after midnight, for Christ's sake! Where the hell is she? a worried Xander asked himself for maybe the millionth time. Oh God, if something's happened to her...

Cordelia noticed Xander's pacing and knew how he was desperately worried over the two women in question. She then shared a glance with Willow, and both femmes simply shook their heads. The situation with Anya would just have to wait till afterwards.

Tara stared at the others in the group too. She could feel Joyce's distress and see the worry lines on her face deepen with every passing moment. Dawn was in equally bad shape, scared that Buffy would die.

Ms. Maclay still found it hard to accept the idea that Dawn was the Key. After all, it had been barely a month since that traumatic night when the young brunette had cut herself to prove that she was real. Still, as far as Tara was concerned, it made no difference where the female teen had come from; only what she did now that she was here and part of all their lives.

Willow noticed her girlfriend's looks and suddenly stared at Giles. She correctly guessed what he was thinking: that he had failed his Slayer badly by allowing Buffy to overrule him on the whole 'let's stake Spike while he's helpless' issue. The redhead knew it would have made no difference if the reinstated Watcher had not backed down on insisting upon such a thing, though. Buffy was her own woman and could not be bullied into anything.

But try convincing a man who loved the tiny blond like his own daughter, especially under these circumstances.

At that moment the young intern named Ben came out of a door leading to the operating room, still in medical scrubs splattered with blood. "Mrs. Summers? Could I speak to you in private?"

Every single member of the gang coalesced together as if drawn in by magnetism. Joyce looked briefly at Ben and then the others, and hesitated. Holding Dawn tightly, Mrs. Summers said simply, "Whatever it is you have to say, you can tell me here in front of everyone else. They'd all find out soon anyway."

Ben nodded. Deep down he'd not really been expecting anything else, Glory's mortal prison knew the extended Summers clan pretty well by now. "First off, Buffy's alive-"

Everyone released the breath they had been holding, relaxing as Ben continued. "But unfortunately, she's also in pretty bad shape."

"What exactly does that mean?" Joyce asked, instantly fearing the worst once more.

"Well, the wound in her side...Mr. Harris got her here quickly enough that we were able to repair the damage, at least mostly. But the head trauma, it's..."

"It's what?" Xander demanded sharply, the fear that he had failed his friend hitting him all over again like a ton of bricks.

Ben sighed. This sort of thing was never easy. "Well, it's simply too severe. I mean, it's, it's a wonder she was still alive what with all the blood loss, but something like this...I...I'm sorry, but Buffy's in a coma. And from all indications, it looks like she's entered into a permanent vegetative state."

The reactions to this were many and varied. Most of the females looked stunned in complete shock and horror, as did the man who Ben could have sworn was Buffy's father if not for the different name and nationality.

But the M.D. noticed that Harris didn't have that same look on his face. The guy simply asked, "Can we see her?"

"No," Ben replied, then raised a hand to forestall the objections. "Look, Buffy's still in intensive care, and there's nothing you could do there besides get in the way of the doctors and nurses looking after her. I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is."

It was obvious the female Scoobies weren't willing to accept that as an answer and the poor intern instantly started getting badgered on all sides. Xander drew Giles away to the side. "We need to talk."

Rupert didn't have time right now for a rant about finding Spike and Drusilla and making them pay. "Xander, for God's sake, this'll have to wait-"

"No, it can't. Stop thinking like a father for a second, Giles, and start thinking like a Watcher! You remember what happened with the Council last month, and how Buffy laid down the law to Quentin Travers? Tell me he wouldn't just love an excuse to 'retire' Buff from fighting the good fight now!"

Giles looked at him in shock. "Xander, you can't mean..."

Harris shook his head. "They can't know, Giles. As far as the Watchers Council is concerned, Buffy is still at large and in charge and leading the fight against Glory. Otherwise, God only knows what they might do!"

Giles slowly nodded. The boy was quite right of course, this was the way it had to be – for now, at least. "Very well. But that won't work indefinitely, you know. And if Buffy should never wake up again-"

Xander snorted, "Oh, come on! I mean, keep in mind that Buffy's a Slayer here! She has this, like, big supernatural healing factor and all. What the hell would those doctors really know about treating someone like her, anyway?"

Again Rupert nodded, briefly marveling at how Xander was keeping his head during this crisis. He supposed it wasn't all that surprising, though. His brood were no longer children in high school and they had to grow up sometime. Still, there were things the youth obviously hadn't considered.

"I concede your point. But be that as it may, for the foreseeable future at least, we are effectively without a Slayer to protect Dawn from Glory. And if, as you say, we cannot ask the Council for assistance in order to keep Buffy's medical condition a secret, nor can we depend on Angel for help even if either of us had wanted to, where can we find someone of that caliber to take Buffy's place so to speak?"

Harris opened his mouth and then abruptly shut it again. Both men appeared to think about the problem, when eventually something just went 'click' inside Xander's brain.

Graduation, two years ago. It's like history is almost repeating itself now! "I've got an idea. I'm not sure if it can work, even if I'm pretty sure that no one's gonna like it if we DO manage pull it off..."

Giles adjusted his glasses in confusion. "What do you mean?"

**The****Magic Box, Sunnydale, California**

**February 18th 2001**

Cordelia Chase looked around the room that night and saw nothing but worried faces.

The young woman was worried herself but tried not to show it. But the facts were facts: Anya was still missing, Buffy was still in a coma, and Dawn was still a target for Glory. And Xander and Giles had been out of contact with the rest of the group for hours after they'd left town the previous day.

Where the heck are they? the seer asked herself yet again. And since when did having Xander Harris around – of all people – help me keep it together?

But she knew the answer to that. Cordelia was a people person, and always had been. First it had been the Cordettes, then the Scooby gang, then Angel's Avengers in LA – but ever since she had come back home, her focus had become her ex-boyfriend.

Cordelia glanced at her watch impatiently. Damn it, Xander...

Just then Harris came briskly through the front door as the bell jingled.

"Xander!" Willow exclaimed, as she and Tara got up from the table. "Where have you-"

"Any sign of Anya?" Xander interrupted her straightway. His expression was very grim and concerned, as the young man stared at the three women he'd put in charge of looking for his beloved while he and Giles were on their self-appointed duty.

"I'm sorry, Xander. We've looked everywhere, twice, but there's been no sign of her. We also threatened that guy Willy like you suggested, but he said he didn't know squat!" Cordelia exclaimed.

Tara spoke up, "We, uh, we even tried to do a locator spell, but th-there was nothing in response. Xander, wherever Anya is...I'm pretty sure she's no longer in Sunnydale."

"Well, um, it's either that or else she's...y'know," Willow said apologetically, with a slight shrug towards her best guy friend.

Xander briefly shut his eyes, not wanting to acknowledge that possibility but having to do so anyway. He opened them again at once; he'd been without sleep for over 48 hours now, and so there was no point taking any unnecessary risks. First thing to do after this little meeting is tear Sunnydale apart looking for her! But before I do that... "Well, obviously, I'm back. And so is Giles."

"Where is he?" Willow wanted to know.

"Outside. He's just, uh, giving us a minute. There's something I gotta explain first. Oh, where's Dawn and Buffy's mom?" Xander asked.

"At the hospital, of course," Cordelia replied. "Okay, Harris, spill. What have you and Giles been up to since yesterday?"

Xander looked annoyed, then resigned. He'd hoped to get sharing the big news over with for everybody in just one session, but he couldn't blame the Summers women for wanting to be at Buffy's side. Hell, if it wasn't for both the Anya and the Glory sitches, he'd almost certainly have been right there with them.

Never mind. Focus. You got some 'splaining to do. "Well, you guys know how Buffy was our best chance of protecting Dawn if Glory starts going on the rampage. But given recent events-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Cordy interrupted. "So let's cut to the chase, shall we? Obviously, you and Giles went out to find us some Slayer-level firepower. The only question is, who'd you get?"

Xander opened his mouth to answer when the front window of the Magic Box exploded inwards, shards of glass flying towards the Scooby gang. Everyone ducked for cover as both a male and female form flew into the shop and started wrestling on the ground.

"STAKE!"

Willow's eyes went wide as she recognized Faith's voice.

After the vampire kicked the Slayer away and they both got up, Xander instantly tossed her his weapon and the brunette woman quickly stabbed the pointy stick into the fang face's chest.

He exploded into dust, ashes slowly falling to the floor.

"Well, this is just great! Xander, I hope you have fun fixing that window. AGAIN!" Cordelia snarked, the junior saleswoman then grimacing at how much property damage her place of employment seemed to suffer every week.

Faith dusted herself off as Giles came rushing through the door. "Faith! Are you all right?"

The Chosen One rotated her right shoulder, easing it back into place. "Five by five, I guess." Then she looked around and saw most of the Scoobies staring at her. "Uh...hi," Faith said, more than somewhat awkwardly.

"What the hell are you doing here, Faith!" Cordelia spat out, maybe a millisecond before Willow could get the chance to do so.

The Slayer just waved at the seer, knowing how much it would piss her off. "Nice to see you too, Cor."

Rupert started to say, "She's here to assist us-"

"Well, gee, that's great," the former socialite interrupted. "Oh, but wait a sec. Wasn't she convicted of murder and sent to a state correctional facility, for like a gazillion years?"

The Chosen One smirked, "It was murder-two. And I got twenty-five to life, just for the record."

"Whatever! Look, Giles arranged for her release after we got Faith to agree to help us," Xander said to his ex, hoping to calm her down.

"And just how the hell did he do that? A Presidential pardon?" Cordy demanded.

"No, no, there's a coven in Devon that I, uh, contacted. A-at my request they removed all memory of Faith from everyone at that Stockton prison, and no one in any way remembers that she was ever there. Some people not affiliated with the Council have altered and deleted official records as well, and thus there isn't any paper trail to follow either," the Englishman explained.

The Vision Girl just stared hard at Xander, women's intuition telling her that this had all been his idea. "So you decided the solution was to bring Psycho Slayer out of retirement? Xander Harris, you are CERTIFIABLE!"

Xander opened his mouth, but just then Willow finally joined the conversation. She said, "Faith? Get out of here before I kill you."

The whole room went quiet, as everyone stared at the redhead either in surprise or dismay. Tara was especially surprised as she thought to herself numbly, What?

Giles spoke up. "Willow-"

"I'm not kidding, Giles! This snake in the grass can't be trusted, not with Dawn's life or anybody else's. So either she goes, or I do!" Willow shouted.

Faith snorted, staring first at Giles and then at Xander. She caught the younger man's eye, "Either you take care of this, or I'm outta here pal. Because hey, I did NOT agree to take this sort of crap from her or anybody else!"

Harris made his decision. Without hesitation he grabbed Willow by the arm and started dragging her towards the front door. "We'll be right outside, just give us a few minutes."

"What? Xander, what do you think you're doing?" Willow cried out in disbelief and exasperation, digging in her heels.

Xander stopped, and stared at her. The stress and frustration were clearly visible on his face when he said coldly, "We need to talk. Outside. NOW!"

The semi-growl on the last word almost made Willow jump, because Xander had never raised his voice like that to her before. And so with a great deal of amazement she just followed her old childhood crush out the front door.

Faith turned around when the door closed and waved to Tara. "Hey. Been a while since we last saw each other, huh?"

The Maclay girl frowned. "I-I'm sorry, have we met?"

Faith looked annoyed with herself. "Oh, right! Yeah, that was back when I was in B's body that night at the Bronze."

Tara quickly remembered that occasion, as well as the cruel words Faith had uttered then. "Oh. So that was you..."

"Giles-!" Cordelia started to whine.

"Cordelia, she's here until Faith gives us reason to decide otherwise. Now, if you and Anya are still working for me..." The British man then looked around. "Uh, where is she anyway?"

"Anya's still missing, duh! Maybe you should be, y'know, a bit more caring about her welfare instead of Faith's?" Cordy fumed.

"And maybe you should start wearing a nametag?" Giles didn't want to continue with this conversation.

Cordelia instantly simmered down due to the threat potential. Remembering her duties as assistant shopkeeper, the woman went to get a broom to start cleaning up the mess from the broken window, fuming all the while. This is so unfair! Why do I always have to be the one to clean up the mess? This is almost as bad as when I had to single-handedly make the Hyperion hotel habitable, back in LA...

Tara looked aside, somewhat embarrassed. I've never seen Cordelia act so...forceful, she absently thought to herself upon recalling how the seer had grilled Xander and even stood up to Giles just now. Granted I've only known her for about a month or so, but she certainly doesn't act like the girl I heard about who used to hide behind Xander on patrol...

Giles simply rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache coming on. "Why do I get the feeling that we're all utterly doomed?" he muttered to himself, as the brunette Slayer shrugged and went to check out the training facilities in the back.

**Outside the Magic Box, Maple Court, Sunnydale**

**A few moments earlier**

"Xander, just what the hell did you and Giles actually think you were doing-?" Willow Rosenberg started to say angrily, after she and Xander walked out the door.

But Harris didn't stop walking until he had almost reached the side of the road. When he turned around the redhead was startled by the expression on his face. Because there was no emotion there at all, and that ran contrary to everything Willow knew about her lifelong friend. She knew that Xander Harris had always been a very emotional person. If he was happy or sad, angry or hurt, melancholy or ecstatic or whatever, you pretty much knew it. What you saw was what you got with the guy, more or less.

But not this time.

"I need you to do something for me. And that is accept Faith's presence here," Xander finally blurted out.

The former hacker couldn't have been more shocked if the guy had just now slapped her across the face. And with a dead frog, at that. "You want me to do WHAT? Oh, no way, Xander-"

"Okay, maybe you don't get it. But this isn't a request. Because like it or not, Wills, Faith's here to help."

"Help? HELP? Have you completely lost your mind?" Willow demanded. "That skank put a knife to my throat in City Hall two years ago!"

"And she tried to strangle me as well. Yeah, I haven't forgotten," Xander said tiredly. "But whatever she did in the past is kinda irrelevant right now. Because she's the Slayer. We need her-"

"No we don't! And in my book Faith's not a Slayer anymore, not after how she betrayed us all that way! BUFFY'S the Slayer around here!" Ms. Rosenberg insisted.

"Well, newsflash, but Buffy's not available anymore!" Xander ranted. He calmed down a bit after seeing the redhead recoil at his tone of voice. "Bottom line, Faith's the best chance we've got to keep Dawn safe until she wakes up. So please, Willow, get over the past. Okay?"

"It's not that simple. Some things you just can't forgive and forget, Xander!" Willow said obstinately.

"Yeah, I know. Like whenever Cordelia looks at me I've got no doubts she's constantly reminded of what it was like when I cheated on her, and she ended up in the hospital back then. And kinda funny how I ended up taking all the blame for that less than two weeks after we finally got caught in that damn basement, wouldn't you say?"

Willow looked at her oldest friend in horror, unable to believe he was willing to play that particular card at this late date. Because it had always been an uncomfortable if unspoken topic between them given how it took two to tango that way, and it was also something that the witch had tried her best not to think about ever since 1999.

Especially since Oz had forgiven Willow and they had gotten back together, while Xander had lost Cordelia for good.

"Xander..."

"Willow, listen to me very carefully. You said it yourself, either she goes or you do. That's why I need you to get over your issues with Faith. On account of as long as Slay-gal does her job she's here to stay, at least till Buffy's sleepy time is over. That's just the way it has to be. Because if Glory comes to kill us all, I don't see anyone else around here able to last five seconds against a god. So have a conniption in private, or whatever. But somehow deal with your problems regarding the situation. Right now."

Xander paused. But there seemed to be nothing else he could think of to say. So he slowly walked back into the magic store, shoulders slumped as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Willow stared at him in disbelief, wondering if the guy was somehow possessed or simply not thinking straight from the whole Anya thing. I mean, how else could you possibly explain Xander saying all those things to me! This is just plain nuts!

But as Willow slowly and methodically went over the situation again in her mind, to her ever-increasing distress...the Rosenberg girl found herself able to understand the basis of his emotional appeal, even if she didn't agree with it.

Xander really believes what he's saying, doesn't he? And he'll side with that bitch against me on this one because of that, if I don't play ball. Oh dear God, what do I do?

Eventually Willow swallowed the bile threatening to rise up her throat and, making her choice, slowly followed Xander back into Giles's store. She silently wondered if, when Buffy woke up and heard the news, the Chosen One would ever be able to forgive her friends for this level of betrayal.

**Sunnydale General Hospital, Sunnydale, California**

**February 23rd 2001**

As far as Xander Harris was concerned it had been a really shitty week.

First of all, Dawn and Joyce had not exactly been thrilled to learn Faith was back in their lives, and that was putting it really mildly. Both Giles and himself had had to do some fast talking to prevent Mrs. Summers from calling the cops, but luckily both the mother and the daughter had been convinced not to do anything rash before hearing them out. So at least that part of it had been taken care of for now.

The situation with Anya was vastly different. Despite what Willow and Tara had said, Xander had started searching for her as soon as he'd left the Magic Box that night. Fortunately for all concerned, Cordelia had been able to anticipate his actions and dragged Harris home to get some sleep, pointing out that he was only going to get himself killed doing something like that in his current state.

There was still nothing new after several days of searching. Xander had even taken a leave of absence from his job to concentrate on the task. But he may as well have not bothered. Because Anya was currently very far away from Sunnydale and unable to be found with the techniques he was employing, anyway.

What was far more important to the Scooby gang was that Joyce's brain had unexpectedly imploded from an aneurysm while she was at Buffy's bedside two days ago. It was damned lucky a nurse had been there with her and called in the possible code, or right now the group would be mourning the middle-aged woman's pointless death.

At any rate right now Faith was out on patrol, Giles and Cordelia were researching one of her visions, and Willow and Tara were helping look after Dawn. And Xander was going to visit Buffy after checking on Joyce.

When he got to Buffy's room, Xander had maybe the ultimate case of déjà vu. Because standing right there in front of the door was Angel. There were no flowers in his hands, but everything else was almost exactly the same as three years ago, even down to the same hospital room.

Xander slowly walked over to him, stake in hand and looking for even the slightest excuse to dust this particular vampire. "Hello, Deadboy."

The ensouled creature whirled around in shock, being so absorbed in his thoughts he hadn't heard Harris approach. He was even more shocked when he saw Xander's face, because the so-called White Knight almost looked like death warmed over. The head of Angel Investigations asked somewhat uncertainly, "Xander? It is you, isn't it?"

Xander frowned, What's he playing at? "Of course it's me." Looking into the vamp's face, he eventually decided that the optional soul extra was still part of the whole undead package. That damned telltale smirk was absent, after all. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Angel looked around at all the people in the corridor and asked, "Can we talk somewhere private?"

Xander hesitated before finally opening the door to Buffy's room. He and the brooding one then walked inside. Angel looked horrified when he saw the figure lying in the bed. "Oh my God!"

"Yeah," Xander said with a grimace, looking at the sleeping Slayer. "That pretty much sums it up in my book too."

"This is all my fault, I know." When Xander cocked his head questioningly, Angel went on, "I made Dru, and she in turn made Spike. So ultimately, what happened to Buffy...is my responsibility."

Harris wasn't in the mood to play the blame game right now. "Not sure where this is going, to be honest with you. Because Cordelia's told me all about what happened with those lawyers back then, and what you're like now. So I repeat, what the hell do you want here?"

Angel looked ashamed before he moved slightly, staring at Buffy briefly. "Well, uh, a lot's happened to me lately. I, um, I sorta hit rock bottom a few nights ago, and I slept with someone I shouldn't have."

Xander instantly moved back, eyes narrowing. Angel noticed and said shortly, "You can relax, there was no moment of perfect happiness. Perfect despair, maybe, but right now I'm about as far from happy as I can possibly be."

Good, Xander thought somewhat vindictively. "So?"

Angel pseudo-sighed. "Do you remember when you were caught cheating on Cordelia?" Xander scowled as the undead guy continued, "It's just...when I heard about it at the time, I thought to myself, 'That idiot, he must be completely insane! Why else would he needlessly destroy everything he had going for him?'"

"Is there a point to all this?" Xander growled, clutching his stake tighter and not liking that particular trip down Memory Lane.

"Yeah. It frightens me to realize I've now done the exact same thing you did! I mean, I don't have a hope in hell of reuniting with my old crew anymore. Wesley's gone, Gunn may as well as be. And Cordelia came back here, after she said she hated me in so many words."

"You're responsible for getting her cousin killed. Were you honestly expecting anything else?" Harris asked in a monotone.

A shrug. "No, not really. But then I learned that Faith wasn't in jail anymore, so I decided to come to Sunnydale to see if anyone knew what was going on. Then I learned about Buffy." He paused. "So, uh, how've you been coping?"

Xander sighed. It was so tempting to just go ahead and hate this guy for everything he'd done, but tonight Harris simply couldn't seem to muster up the energy for it. "It's been...difficult. Giles and I brought Faith here to cover for Buffy almost as soon as...as soon as IT happened. And about the only good thing happening lately is that no one's kicking up much of a fuss about Faith's presence anymore, Willow and Cordy especially. I mean, with Anya mi-"

Xander stopped and berated himself for the slip. Angel just frowned, trying to place the name. "Anya...? Your girlfriend, as I recall. What about her?"

The young man tried to keep a tight rein on his temper. "She's been missing for over a week now. As in without a trace. And I think you remember enough about Sunnydale to know that once someone's been gone that way, for that long, odds are if you ever see them again you end up wishing you hadn't."

Again Angel shrugged, acknowledging that harsh truth. "What do the doctors say about Buffy?" he asked, changing the subject.

Harris figured that was just typical of his sunlight-challenged companion, but let it go for now. "They said the odds are she's gonna be a vegetable for the rest of her life, but I don't believe that. I mean, look what happened to Faith! Man, I just wish we could find a doctor to examine Buffy who we could trust and who knows what a Slayer really is, without wondering if he was gonna rat us out to the Council."

Angel frowned. "I'm assuming Giles can't help with that one. Have you tried talking to Wesley? I heard he's in London right now, and he might know someone..."

Xander thought about it and eventually nodded. Any port in a storm I guess. "I'll tell Giles to track him down and give him a call. So, what are your plans now? Are you gonna stay here, or head back to Los Angeles?"

The undead Champion hesitated. "How Cordelia's doing, really?"

Harris shook his head, quickly figuring out what that truly meant. "Don't even bother to go there, Deadboy. She still hasn't forgotten what you did. And the Powers sent her a message that the visions she gets now are to help us, not you. So, Captain Hairgel, if the plan was to persuade her to go back to LA with you – you may as well go home alone right now."

Angel scowled and fought down the usual irritation he'd always felt in Xander's presence. "I think I'd prefer to hear it from her direct-"

Xander snorted. "How quickly they forget! Cordy threatened to stake you on sight last month for what you did, remember? Take it from someone who's been there, pal, once you're on Cordelia's shit list like that...there ain't no way you're getting off anytime soon!"

"Right. So then how did YOU finally get her to forgive you?" Angel wanted to know.

Harris sighed, past misery briefly coming back to haunt him. "I'm not sure I ever really did. But we at least became civil to one another again, after I bought her that Prom dress."

There was silence between the two men for a few moments, as the duo stared at each other. Angel finally turned around and swept out of the room, his black duster emphasizing that whole billowy coat 'King of Pain' image.

"Asshole." Xander then just looked sadly at his comatose friend and the beeping monitors the blond Slayer was hooked up to before he left the room as well.

**The Magic Box, Sunnydale, California**

**April 27th 2001**

Cordelia Chase was at work, but she wasn't enjoying herself. The young woman was doing inventory at the magic store, as the task had become hers and hers alone ever since Anya's new status had been discovered.

Not long after Joyce had been woken up, Willow and Tara had done a great deal of research and discovered reports of an artifact known as the Axis of Pythia. It was something referred to as an ancient power bridging all the various different dimensions out there, able to cross space and time and permitting anything lost to be found by the user. It had been at an auction house in LA, but one quick B&E and assorted adventures later Harris had procured his prize.

He was subsequently shattered to find out that his girlfriend had willingly become a higher being, and was now permanently lost to him. Xander couldn't see her or talk to her anymore, even if Anya would always be looking out for him. It had almost been enough to make the young man want to lie down and die, knowing that he would have to live the rest of his life without her.

Ahn left me. And without even so much as a 'Dear John' letter? Oh God, this is not happening. This is NOT happening! Harris had thought numbly at the time, after returning the Axis.

But it had happened, and since living in denial was pointless Xander had had to deal. Fortunately he had eventually recovered from the loss, at least mostly, even getting some sense of peace knowing that Anya was doing a lot of good up there somewhere. And one night after Phantom Dennis had unexpectedly gone into the light to help the new higher being, Xander had suddenly found himself Cordelia's sole roommate.

For Ms. Chase, living with her ex-boyfriend all these months had given her a unique insight into how the man was wired up these days. Harris was a damn sight different than when they'd been together back in high school, that was for sure. For one thing, he had found his niche in life. Construction work had definitely agreed with her high school sweetheart, adding muscles to his frame that Cordy had checked out more than once over the last four months. Plus Xander was no longer lusting after Buffy, if his feelings over Anya's loss were any indication.

And how long is someone supposed to be in mourning like that before it's all right for a girl to make a move, anyway? The thought just popped into Cordelia's mind out of nowhere.

She stopped checking the inventory, stunned. Okay, where the hell did THAT come from? Because I'm not interested in Xander that way anymore! I'm not. I'M NOT!

Luckily, Giles came out of the back room to distract Cordy from that disturbing train of thought. "You okay?" she immediately asked in concern upon seeing the Englishman post-training session.

"I fear I no longer have any feeling whatsoever in my left arm," Rupert said with a wince, as he headed to the Magic Box's fridge to get some ice. "Thankfully though, I must admit Faith is shaping up well. Her incarceration certainly didn't interfere with her ability to train and fight hard."

"Good for her," Cordelia replied somewhat nastily. Well, as long as she can continue to protect Dawn, that is!

The door jingled and Xander walked into the Magic Box, as Cordelia turned to stare at the carpenter in surprise. "Hey. What are you doing here?" she suddenly smiled.

Xander briefly glanced at the former starlet. "All the guys knocked off early today, on account of another safety inspector turned up missing. I'm thinkin' maybe Glory's been getting up to her old tricks again – so it wouldn't surprise me if he turns up soon, just as insane as the last one."

Cordelia grimaced at the concept. Then she doubled over, groaning, as a vision unexpectedly tore through her mind like a freight train.

The seer saw a blurry image of a young woman, a brunette with glasses wearing a locket, reading a book. The name of the LA public library appeared in Cordelia's brain, as the woman in the vision was suddenly sucked screaming into a portal of some sort. One that had manifested behind her with utterly no warning.

"Cordy? You okay?" That was Xander's voice.

"Why does everyone ALWAYS ask me that? Do I LOOK okay!" Ms. Chase snapped out through the pain, causing Xander to instantly step back.

Faith came running out of the back room. "Hey. What's all the racket about?"

"Cordelia just had a vision," Giles told her. Then he turned back to young woman, "What did you see?"

"Uh, a woman. Brunette, she looked a bit older than me. She was at a public library in LA. I think she works there, she was reading some sorta book," Cordelia replied. "Then there was a...an opening behind her. Something magical – a portal or something, I guess. She got sucked into it, screaming her head off."

"A portal?" Giles asked.

"Big round blue swirly thing, I don't know! The Powers send me visuals, not detailed explanations!" Ms. Chase said somewhat heatedly.

Xander finally spoke again, "Sounds like we need to go there, then?"

Cordy nodded. "Yeah, I guess. Just let me call Willow and Tara first to cover for us with Dawn and Joyce, then we can hit the road before it gets dark."

"Are you sure you two can handle this alone?" Giles felt he had to ask the question.

Xander glanced at him. "Faith needs to be here close to Dawn, and you've got a business to run. Besides, it's the weekend tomorrow, I could do with a little LA vacation time."

Faith just stared at her ex-lover, and wordlessly nodded at Xander's nonverbal request to keep everyone safe while he was gone.

**Public library, Los Angeles, California**

**April 28th 2001**

The next day found Xander and Cordelia checking out the place the vision had revealed to the seer. "Hi. We're looking for someone who works here?" Cordy asked with her friendliest smile.

The librarian looked at her and replied, "Who, exactly?"

Cordy thought fast. Why didn't the Powers just tell me her name, damn it? "Okay, she's kinda tall. She's got brown hair nearly down to her waist, wears glasses, kinda pretty..."

The description didn't appear to ring a bell with the other woman. "Sorry."

Ms. Chase shared a hopeless look with Xander. Then Cordelia remembered another thing from the vision, "Oh! She wears a locket, shaped like a ball or-or an apple, I think?"

Finally the female librarian seemed to get a clue. "An apple? Fred wore one of those."

"Fred?" Harris asked at once.

"Winifred Burkle. Everyone just called her Fred," the woman replied.

"Do you know where we can find her?" Xander then wanted to know.

The librarian stared at them for a moment. Moving to her desk, the woman then pulled out a folded flyer from one of the drawers and handed it to Cordy. "Fred disappeared five years ago, they never found her. The police said if she didn't show up in the first week...well, I'm afraid that we all pretty much stopped hoping a long time ago. You know how it is."

Xander winced at the reminder of Anya's disappearance months before. "Yeah, I certainly do."

Cordy handed the flyer to her ex-boyfriend. "This is her."

Xander studied the photo of Fred Burkle, before thinking to himself, Okay, so why the hell did the Powers send Cordelia that particular vision, and now of all times? How the heck is this supposed to help us against Glory? But all he said to the librarian was, "Can you tell us anything about her?"

The woman replied with a shrug, "Well, Fred worked here with me in the library, part-time. She was studying to be a physicist."

Cordelia prodded her, "The day she disappeared...?"

"Oh, I swear, it was so creepy. One minute she was cataloguing in the foreign language section, and the next minute she was just gone! Vanished off the face of the Earth!"

**The Foreign Language section**

**A few minutes later**

The two Sunnydale natives looked around, not quite sure where to go from here. "Is this it?" Xander asked his companion.

"Yeah, this is where I saw the portal in my vision-"

"Well, hello gorgeous! Aren't you a sight for sore eyes!"

Cordelia whirled around at hearing the familiar voice. "Lorne?" she squealed, before rushing over to give the lounge demon a big hug. "What are you doing here?"

Then she saw Xander looking at her quizzically. "Oh! Where are my manners? Lorne, this is Xander Harris, he's an old friend from Sunnydale! And Xander, this is Lorne, he's a demon but he's also a good guy who runs this Karaoke bar that we all used to go to. Well, when I say 'we' I mean Wes, Gunn, me and-"

"Me?"

Cordelia turned to the doorway, where Angel was standing. "Yeah. So what are you doing here, Angel?" she demanded coldly as her eyes went into laser mode.

"Whoa, calm down there cutie pie! The vibes you're putting out are seriously giving me the willies. Me and your old boss are here on business," the Host hurriedly decided to interject, not needing his anagogic powers to know Cordy's emotional state. Angel looked down in sorrow, while Harris simply glanced at his ex.

"Business?" Xander finally spoke up.

Lorne shrugged, the green mojo guy getting the impression that Cordelia's friend was able to handle knowing about the weird stuff in this world. "A portal appeared in my club yesterday, and out of it came a Drokken beast. Right in the middle of my performance, too. It totally threw me off! And Cordy-cakes here can tell you how much I hate to disappoint an audience. Well, obviously I needed help to terminate that mess of ugly so I decided to hit up the Big Guy. He sang, I dished, and now here we are."

"Portal, huh?" was Xander's only comment. "Like the one in Cordelia's vision, maybe..."

"Cordy had a vision?" Angel asked in confusion.

Ms. Chase ignored him, grabbing a book from the shelf. "This is it, this is the book I saw!" She checked the loan date at the back, "Last checked out May 6th, 1996. And returned May 7th, 1996."

"The same day this Fred girl disappeared," Xander looked at the flyer again.

"Uh, who are we talking about again?" Poor old Angel still looked pretty lost here.

"The woman Cordelia had a vision about," Xander shrugged.

"Crv dr pff lr ploos pls vos strp umpt pls plsrts in uft frm pltz," Cordelia said questioningly, reading aloud from the volume. "What the hell kinda language is that?"

Suddenly the Host started to scream a single high note as a blinding light appeared out of nowhere and a portal erupted out of the ether. Before Angel had a chance to, Xander shoved Cordelia behind him out of an instinctive urge to protect her. Moments later a green-skinned, red-eyed, long-haired and armored demon flew out of the portal head-first. He came rolling up with a sword in his hand.

Angel did the whole Champion thing and began to attack the newcomer before it was realized that this was in fact Landok, Lorne's cousin from their home dimension of Pylea. Big demon warrior hero that he was, upon learning the situation Landok instantly volunteered to take part in the Drokken hunt. The hunt eventually ended in success, but at the cost of a life-threatening wound to the new Deathwok clan demon in the neighborhood.

Luckily Cordelia figured out that the book worked both ways. They could send Landok home with another reading of the incantation without anything else coming through from Pylea. Thus, the injured demon was sent back where he belonged.

Unfortunately though, what no one was expecting was for Xander to also be sucked into Pylea as well.

**Hyperion Hotel, Los Angeles, California**

**April 29th 2001**

"It's been nearly 24 hours already! Xander could have died a million times over in that Pie-lion place, and we're still just hanging around here!" Cordelia finally exploded in the lobby of her old workplace.

"It's Pylea. And sweetie, please. Think about what it is you're really asking us to do," Lorne looked at the brunette woman. "I mean, putting aside that whole issue regarding how dangerous it is to mess around with those kinda magicks, the guy might already be dead-"

"Don't you DARE say that! Because Xander is NOT dead!" Cordelia almost screamed into the Host's face. Deep down the young woman finally began to realize how much Harris still meant to her, his disappearance sharpening old feelings she'd previously thought were gone forever.

Angel took a moment to think about Cordy's response, frowning slightly. He didn't exactly like the conclusions he was drawing.

When Harris had vanished that way, and the Host had admitted he didn't know how the whole portal thing worked, a freaked and semi-hysterical Cordelia Chase had telephoned Rupert Giles after failing to open the mystical gateway herself. The vampire hadn't been sure whether or not to mention Xander wouldn't want Cordelia to needlessly risk her life for his like that, jumping into a portal that could lead to Hell.

But in the end the former Angelus had decided to stay quiet, as the wall between himself and his former secretary had been barely breached at all. And Cordy would most likely do whatever she wanted, anyway.

Later Giles had arrived and learned the situation. Castigating himself for ever agreeing to let Cordelia and Xander come here alone, he'd started doing the whole Research Boy thing. Later, the Englishman had told Cordy and the others that they couldn't simply just enter an interdimensional portal like Xander had done. Or they'd all find themselves in completely separate places upon arriving on the other side. Maybe on opposite sides of the world, even.

And THAT hadn't gone down well with the former Queen C, hence her anger over the delay.

"So, have you found another hotspot or whatever yet? You did promise to help us, y'know!" Cordelia said to Lorne, the old warm and fuzzy feelings lost by now and her temper frayed from the lounge demon's reluctance to comprehensively assist in this endeavour.

"Yeah, Aggie was a real Mother Theresa and told me where we should go for that part of it. But cupcake, I'm begging you to listen to me. Don't kid yourself, Pylea is a nightmare! I mean, they have NO music there. And as a helpless human, right now your ex is most likely dead or worse. I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is..."

Cordelia glared at him while Giles picked up another book. "Hmm, I suppose I could try a binding spell to make sure everyone stays together going through the portal..." the Watcher mumbled to himself.

Cordy heard him and looked excited at once. "Fine! Great! Let's do that-"

"But it's possible everybody could emerge on the other side a-a-as some sort of freakishly hybridized Siamese twin," the Watcher finished off musingly.

Ms. Chase said with a grimace, "Ewww! Let's not do that, then."

Suddenly Giles dropped the book he was holding, and picked up another one. He subsequently dropped that one too, flipping through some others as everyone stared at him in anticipation. "Ah, yes, of course!"

"What?" Angel asked.

Giles looked at him. "All the references to metal I've been seeing – it's so obvious! All that's needed is for the traveling party to be surrounded on all four sides by metal, and that'll prevent the scattering effect!"

"Are you sure?" Cordy asked excitedly.

The Host looked on in horror. No, no, is he serious? Oh, I can't, I can't do this! Because I am NOT going back to Pylea, people!

"Well, as sure as I can be without researching it further for, say, another six months. I'd guess about, um, 97 percent certain?" Giles finally put the book down.

"That's good enough for me!" Cordelia declared. "Okay, Angel, Lorne, let's get this show on the road!"

"I CAN'T!" Lorne suddenly protested. "Look, honeybunch, no offense. But I love it here. And I hate it there. Five years ago I came to this world, and today I'm still ecstatic over having ended up here. I do NOT want to risk getting stuck in that sort of hell ever again!"

"But it's your world. And Cordelia and I will need a guide once we get there," Angel protested.

"Well, I wish I could tell you how to call Pylean 411 once you arrive, but since no one has any telephones-"

"It was your cousin we tried to save that got Xander into this mess in the first place, remember? So either your cowardly lion ass comes with us – or so help me God, I might just gut you like a fish!" Cordelia spat out, completely at the end of her tether over worry about the guy she lived with.

Giles, Lorne and Angel all stared at this woman who'd just threatened the Host that way. I think she means it, too! they all thought in dismay.

The green-skinned demon finally turned to Giles, "Studmuffin, you're the big brain around here. Any chance I can convince you to come in my place?"

Giles shook his head, embarrassed by the nickname. "I'm sorry, but my priorities have to be elsewhere. I have to get back to Sunnydale as soon as possible."

"Why, is there a problem Faith can't handle alone?" Cordelia asked.

"No, no. In all honesty she's doing the best anyone can. But there's no telling what may have happened there since yesterday, what with an insane hellgod on the loose!"

Angel chipped in, "Besides, someone should stay behind. If we're not back in a week or two, it'd be nice to have somebody try to rescue the rescuers."

Giles nodded once. Then the ensouled vampire looked around his hotel, memorizing the place in his mind in case this was the last time he ever saw it. "Okay then. Let's saddle up and go rescue Xander." And internally, Angel winced in complete distaste at the concept.

Lorne groaned. "Oh God, but I really wish I didn't have to go down this particular yellow brick road..."

**Pylea demon dimension**

**The same time**

Xander Harris was taking a quick break from running for his life.

The last day or so hadn't exactly been a joyful one for him. The young man had woken up alone within a meadow in Pylea, not knowing where he was or what had happened to him. Of course, Harris had quickly figured out the gist when that demon dog Seekul had found him, and the old demon man had shown up not long afterwards as well.

Luckily though, Xander had managed to outrun the pet belonging to Trensiduf of the Gathwok clan, and lose himself in the woods. Harris had had lots of practice in running from demons over the years, and was in better shape than Cordelia Chase would have been in that situation.

But unfortunately, the system around here didn't give up that easily.

The demon villager had reported a 'cow' on the loose to the local authorities, and so a hunting party had been formed to track Xander down. Luckily Harris had someone up above looking out for him, namely Anya, who was doing whatever she could to keep her beloved safe without violating the rules and intervening directly.

Anya knew that the soldier memories may have faded away almost completely, but Xander had studied Army and SeAL manuals in his spare time after that Halloween. So his ascended girlfriend had 'encouraged' those memories, which had thus allowed him to avoid the 'cow' hunters so far. Harris couldn't remember the nights in Vietnam anymore, but he could recall the procedures, such as how to leave false trails and other esoteric fieldcraft.

And now in a bad temper from everything he'd pulled off, Xander's hunters had found someone they otherwise wouldn't have at this point in time...

The one and only Fred Burkle.

Xander heard the woman's screams as the Pylean demons dragged her out of the cave she had called home for the past five years. She struggled wildly, which greatly annoyed Constable Narwek, the thug in charge of the operation.

"Enough, cow! You must be punished to learn your place in the proper scheme of things. Ten lashes!"

Fred screamed again, struggling wildly. And at the point he saw the whip come out, Xander decided he had to do something to help her.

There are two types of sentient beings in existence, whether you're talking about humans or demons or whatever; the predators, and the grazers. In a nutshell this particular young man hadn't survived living on a Hellmouth for over twenty years by being a herd member, one of the sheep that lived in denial. So, from somewhere down within the innermost depths of his being, Xander's inner predator came out to play.

In Pylea things were either black or white, there were none of the annoying shades of gray one could find back on Earth. The metaphysical laws were such that you were either one thing or another here, as Angel would soon learn. Thus from his predatory act, deciding to save Fred by killing as many demons as he could no matter what the consequences to him, Xander unleashed something completely unexpected.

Which was the last remaining vestige of the Primal Hyena spirit within him. Something that had been locked away within its host ever since the sophomore year of high school.

Xander's eyes glowed green and he morphed into a sort of dog-like demon, brown and bumpy with a snout extending from his face with long, sharp canine teeth. His hands turning into claws, Harris started foaming at the mouth and he became a lot hairier within two seconds.

Fred and the Pyleans heard a horrible cackling laugh. Then the Hui-tal, the scavenger of food, shot out from the woods and began tearing the hunting party into little pieces. Caught completely by surprise, for the demons it was a slaughter. Arms and legs ripped off with complete unbridled ferocity, their bloody corpses soon littered the forest even as they tried to fight back against such an unexpected, merciless and vicious enemy.

In the end only Constable Narwek got away. And that was only by shoving one of his minions directly into the Hui-tal's face, then ignominiously turning around and running for it as fast as his thick demon feet could go.

Ignoring the freaked Fred completely Hyena-Xander, with blood smeared around his mouth and coloring his teeth, finally stopped his rampage. A piece of meat still hanging from one incisor, he then quickly set off after Narwek. But it was too late, the Hui-tal couldn't catch his scent amidst all the others in the woods.

That didn't mean he refused to try, though. But finally, exhausted from his injuries and the effort of running after his prey, the hyena eventually collapsed unconscious, turning back into the human-form Xander Harris.

Fred Burkle timidly arrived, having slowly and carefully followed the strange demon's tracks. She then frowned at finding Xander where the Hui-tal's trail ended. Somewhat confused she started dragging him back to her cave.

**Elsewhere in Pylea**

**Not long afterwards**

Lorne, Angel and Cordelia slowly made their way towards the Deathwok clan family farm. And the Host of Caritas was in no way happy about coming here, of all places.

The trio had arrived into the demon dimension a short time ago, just as elsewhere far away Xander had resumed human shape. On the plus side, the ensouled vampire had been stunned and then ecstatic to see he could walk in the light of the two Pylean suns without harm. But Lorne had gotten into a complete frenzy over the fact that the book they'd used to open up the portal to Pylea had gone missing.

Angel and Cordelia had eventually calmed him down though, and they had gone off in search of their lost acquaintance after hiding Angel's car as best they could.

Initially Lorne had wanted to go see an old boyhood chum of his named Blix, but Cordy had quickly quashed that idea. "Why the hell would Xander go anywhere near him or any other demon pal of yours like that? If he's not hiding somewhere he'd try to find your cousin, right? I mean, that guy's the only one Xander, Angel and I actually know around here. So can you say, no-brainer?"

Bowing to her logic both vampire and demon had escorted the female seer to Lorne's home, low profile. Lorne muttered to himself as they finally came upon his family, "Boy, I'd give my left horn not to have to do this..." Then he called out, "Hi-de-ho!"

One of the demons, a bearded one in addition to having the horns and red eyes and green skin of that race, came over at once. "Krevlorneswath? Can it be truly be you? I've often prayed that I might once again look upon your face."

Lorne replied warmly, "Hi, mom."

The bearded demon instantly spat in her son's face, to the other two's shock. "You have shamed our clan and betrayed your people, deserting us that way for the last five years! You are a complete and utter disgrace. What have you to say for yourself?"

Lorne just wiped his face with a handkerchief. "Angel-cake, Cordy-kins? My mother."

The demon matriarch finally noticed Lorne's companions. "Who are these cow trash you've brought to my home? No matter. Take them away, and get your strangely-dressed carcass off my lawn while you're at it!"

Seemingly out of nowhere Landok showed up. "This one is no cow! This is Angel, the brave and noble Drokken killer. It is good to see you again, my friend. I would have perished in your strange world if not for your bravery." The demon warrior muscled Lorne aside before noticing Cordelia, almost instantly dismissing her as irrelevant. Then Landokmar of the Deathwok clan looked around. "The other member of your party is not present with you?"

"No, see, that's kinda why we're here. Funny thing, but when we sent you home Xander sorta came along for the ride. You haven't seen him around anywhere, have you?" Angel asked.

Landok shook his head, so Angel then turned to Lorne's mother. "He's about yay tall, dark hair, sarcastic sense of humor – you couldn't have missed him..."

Landok's aunt spat onto the ground. "Enough! I have seen no unfamiliar cows around here. And you dare speak to me as an equal? Numfar! Do the dance of shame!"

One of the demons in the background started doing a strange series of movements, including shuffling about, knocking himself on the head and a bunny hop. Lorne ignored him and simply said, "Well, it's been a blast, and exactly the kind of homecoming I always dreamed about, but I guess now it's time for us to skedaddle. So, toodles."

Landok refused to accept that though. Summoning some of his relatives with a gesture he said, "We shall adorn my gallant friend in raiments befitting a warrior, so that our neighbors may know of his valor. Wait, I have a better idea! Come, Angel, you will be my guest at the village feast. There you will tell the tale of your bravery and courage against the vicious Drokken."

"This, uh, this really isn't necessary..." the vampire stammered out, when Angel suddenly noticed the clothes, necklace and cape he was being given in exchange for his duster. "Um, nice threads! Uh, hey..."

Landok started to drag Angel away, while Lorne followed. Cordelia just rolled her eyes and was about to motor after them when she had a vision, one in which a Drokken was killing a demon wearing some sort of peasant clothing. "AGGGH!" she grunted, bending over.

Unfortunately both Angel and Lorne were too far away to hear by this point, assuming that Ms. Chase was following behind them. So after Cordelia finally looked up and noticed Lorne's mom staring at her she said, "A Drokken. It's gonna attack somebody, a demon, near the forest, by a-a big yellow rock. I saw it. You have to hurry, or he's gonna die!"

The demon woman stepped back in evident fear. "Cursed! The cow is cursed!"

Numfar stopped dancing, as he and the other Deathwok clan demons came up to the human seer. "Cursed! Cursed!" they all started chanting.

Cordelia didn't get it. But she wasn't a fool and immediately started backing away. Then she turned around and ran, heading for the nearby woods as fast as her legs could carry her. The demon clan started chasing after her, of course, but the woman had enough of a head start that she finally managed to lose her pursuers.

**Fred's cave, Pylea**

**April 30th 2001**

Xander finally woke up, many hours after collapsing unconscious.

His head felt like hell. Groaning, the man wondered where he was, but suddenly Xander tasted the demon blood in his mouth. And he frantically started to spit it out. "Oh man, gross!"

Then the memories came back. Turning into the beast. Savagely murdering every demon he could get a look at. Chasing after that last remaining asshole...

Xander began to shake with fear and horror. What have I done? Oh, sweet mamalooshin, what have I – what the hell have I become now?

"I've got some water if you want it."

Xander whipped his head around, at the sound of the female voice with the slight Texan accent. "Who are you?"

He saw a brunette woman in rags who looked like she'd been living in the wild for years on end. Not answering the question she just dipped a cup into the pool of water that was in the cave and handed it to Xander. He repeatedly rinsed out his mouth while the dark-haired girl put on her glasses and started scribbling on the walls of her residence.

Finally Harris managed to get himself under control, at least a little bit, after cleaning himself up. Deciding to simply repress as much as he could till further notice, the former Zeppo finally said, "Uh, thanks. Hey, nice place."

Fred ignored him completely. "Uh, you're not gonna talk to me anymore, I take it?" Xander asked hopelessly.

Finally the woman broke off her writing and came back to stare at Harris. "You've been asleep for hours, ever since I found you outside. That is, if you're real. Are you real? I can't be sure, see, because bad things happen around here. They always do, like the demons finally finding this place and then ordering me to be whipped. And I'm expected to have to deal with it, and it's a helluva lot of pressure on me, you know?"

The crazed babbling made Xander recoil slightly. "Where are we?"

"Pylea." With that the Texan woman turned around and started humming to herself, as she began to look for something.

Oh, shit. I really am in that demon dimension Landok came from? "Well, uh, thanks for taking me in, uh..."

Fred stopped what she was doing. Frowning, she said, "I had a name once. But I think that was just a dream."

Xander spied a driver's license on the floor of the cave. He picked it up and his eyes went wide, "Winifred Burkle...hey, you're the girl from Cordelia's vision!"

Ms. Burkle started to move back. "What?"

"They called you Fred, right? Me, Cordy and a couple of others over at that library in LA the other day, we were looking for you-"

"Stop it," Fred kept moving back.

"You disappeared five years ago," Xander finished up.

"STOP IT!" Fred shouted crazily. "That was just a dream!"

"No, uh, 'fraid not," Xander said carefully, as he made his way towards her. "Fred...if I can call you that?" She nodded jerkily. "Well, this isn't a dream. I mean I'm real, y'know? And so are you. Look, it's all gonna be okay somehow. We'll find a way to get outta here, all right? A portal or something to get us back home."

"No, no, can't get back, can't go home," Fred interrupted. "I tried, I tried for years! But you can't go back. You can't."

"Well, it's not like we can just stay in here forever either, can we?" Harris tried not to show the exasperation he was suddenly feeling.

Fred simply stared at the stranger. "Why not?" she asked in reply.

For a moment, Xander honestly didn't know what to say. Then he told her, "Because like you said, the demons know where you live."

Fred instantly started gathering her things. Xander offered to do whatever he could to help, but she just waved him aside as the woman began searching through her cave intent on finding all the elements necessary for survival.

**The Imperial Palace, Pylea**

**The same time**

The head priest of the Covenant of Trombli, the demon priesthood who ran the show in this dimensional neck of the woods, sat on what looked like a throne. His name was Silas, and he was receiving the report of the Captain of the Guard. "Repeat that again, a cow did what?"

The Captain looked concerned. "According to the testimony, a female runaway was found hiding in a cave in the mountains. And at that point, the cow a hunting party had been tracking killed all of the group with his bare hands, apart from the one survivor who reported the events in question."

"A COW did that?" Silas couldn't conceive of how a pitiful slave could ever possibly accomplish such a thing.

"From what this Constable Narwek says, it was no ordinary cow, my lord. It was able to assume the form of the Hui-tal, and kill its betters that way."

"Hmm, I see," the red-robed demon looked concerned. "Then gather what necessary forces you need and hunt it down. As well as that runaway that the constable found. After the public execution, cut off their heads and display them on the ramparts of the palace as an example to the other slaves."

"Yes, Lord Silas," the Captain bowed and looked ready to depart. But then one of his lieutenants came up and whispered urgently in his ear. The chief guard instantly looked amazed.

"A problem, Captain?" Silas demanded.

The Captain of the Guard bowed again. "Forgive me, my lord, but there's just been reported news of another cow – a, a female who may be cursed with the sight. From what I've learned, it predicted the death of a villager near Dester's Rock long before it happened. If it is true...then the cursed one may finally be among us!"

Silas immediately got up from his throne, his eyes blazing. "Never mind those other cattle for now, their capture can wait. Find this cow that the Powers might have chosen to bestow their gift upon, and bring it here to be tested. Or else don't bother coming back to the palace alive!"

"Yes, my lord. Ah, there is one other matter. Apparently the female cow was in the company of two others. Krevlorneswath of the Deathwok clan, and a male cow it's claimed is a slayer of Drokken beasts. Shall I have them brought here for questioning?"

"Yes, of course. Now go about your business."

The minion quickly bowed one last time and left the audience chamber, his lieutenant loyally trailing after him.

**The woods near Fred's cave, Pylea**

**The same time**

Cordelia was talking to herself as she kept going aimlessly through the forest. "I wanna go home. I wanna find Xander. I wanna have a decent meal, preferably Thai or Korean. Hell, I wanna be doing ANYTHING but trudging through the woods of Demon Land and wondering what the hell I'm gonna do next!"

Well, things had been difficult for her lately to say the least. The bugs, the mud, the bugs, the absence of toilets, shops or other signs of civilization, the bugs, the presence of wild animals who might decide she was a tasty snack, and then of course there were the DAMNED bugs...

Unfortunately for Cordelia, Angel and Lorne could do nothing to help her now because they were about to start languishing in the dungeons of the palace after having been grabbed by Narwek and his goon squad. Following a riot where Angel's inner vampire demon had completely taken over, and the local constable had killed Landok when he'd tried to intervene. She had witnessed it whilst in hiding.

So Ms. Chase was doing the only thing she could do, which was look for her missing roommate. And hope that when she found Xander he would have some idea what to do to get them all out of this mess.

Walking a little ways further, Ms. Chase made her way through a wooded area. After rounding past a boulder Cordy suddenly heard a male voice saying, "So are you serious about that whole tree bark enchilada thing?"

XANDER? Cordelia's heart was filled with hope as she edged toward a cave entrance. Peering over the lip she saw the object of her search talking to some woman in god-awful clothing. "Xander!"

Harris was very surprised when a female form landed in his arms, latching her own tightly around him. But the man's astonishment instantly turned into delight as he recognized the newcomer, "Cordy!"

Overcome with emotion and the effects of her recent ordeal, Ms. Chase instinctively planted a big wet one directly on Xander's lips. It was only a few seconds later that she remembered Harris was no longer her boyfriend, not to mention still pining over Anya, and so she quickly pulled away in embarrassment. "Oh! Sorry, I guess I got a bit carried away just now. But after the last two days, believe me, someone Up There owes me big time for everything I've had to go through!"

Xander was semi-dazed at her return into his life and that really unexpected kiss. He briefly touched his lips with his tongue and stammered, "Uh, Cor, how-how did you get here?"

"Same way you did of course, the whole portal thing! Lorne, Angel and I came to rescue your lame ass," Cordelia replied. "Who's your friend?"

Focusing a little Xander gestured, "Um, Cordelia Chase, meet Fred Burkle. Fred, this is Cordy."

"Uh, hi," Fred stammered. Is this his girlfriend? I guess so. The, the good ones are always taken...unless they get their heads chopped off, or the kye-rumption thing doesn't work out...or...

"Fred Burkle?" Cordelia's brow furrowed in concentration. Then her eyes widened. "Oh! You're that girl who disappeared from the library in Los Angeles!"

The Texan looked astonished. She turned to Xander, "Does, does everybody know who I am now?"

Cordy frowned, "Xander, what have you told her?"

"Just the basics." Harris shrugged. "Who we are, who she is, and how we're gonna get out of here. Cordy, come and have a look at this!"

Harris gestured for her to follow him. Moving to his side Cordelia looked up at the writing covering the walls. Some of it looked like the words from the book that had opened the portal to Pylea, whilst other scribbles resembled mathematical formulas that she vaguely remembered from her high school days.

"Xander, isn't that-?"

He nodded. "Oh yeah. Krv...drplgr...pwlz...chkwrt. Those are some of the words we used to open up that portal back in LA!"

Fred said, "Oh, they're not words. They're consonant representations of a mathematical transfiguration formula."

Both Xander and Cordelia just looked at Fred as she went on. "I used to think that if you said them out loud and in the right order, then the whole portal thing would happen again. And I tried for years and years – until my tongue was all swollen and my head almost went kaplooey. But trying to open a portal doesn't work from this side-"

Cordelia was quick to disagree, "Oh, no, it does. I mean, a Drokken and Lorne's cousin got to LA from this end. And somebody must have opened up the portals for them Maybe you did, and you just don't know where."

Fred looked baffled. "Me? I don't think so. The priests have all the power around here."

"Priests?" Xander wanted to know.

In her own rambling way, Fred explained about the demon power base running the kingdom. Xander frowned as he looked to his former girlfriend, "Wait a minute, you're here all alone. So, uh, where's Deadboy and Lorne?"

The former Soldier Guy looked unhappy as Cordelia told him about their capture by the Covenant. "Well, since we can't exactly go rescue them if it's just the two of us against a demon army, I guess we're gonna need help. Fred? Do you know of any sort of organized resistance to those demon priest-y guys around these parts?"

Ms. Burkle hesitated. "Um, the human rebels? I-I-I thought they were just dreams. That's why I've been avoiding them all this time."

"Well, I hope for our sake they're real," Xander said, as he glanced outside the cave. "Look, Fred and I were about to vacate the premises. This place is compromised: one of the demons we encountered right outside this cave got away, and reinforcements could be here any second. So we gotta grab everything we can and try to hook up with the rebels. Agreed?"

Cordelia nodded, while Fred quickly began to gather up all her things again.

**Human rebel encampment, somewhere in the woods**

**May 3rd 2001**

It was damned cold that night, as Cordelia sought out Xander in the campsite.

It had taken them and Fred quite a while to find the rag-tag group of resistance fighters, who one by one had escaped slavery and then joined together to increase their odds of survival. Cordelia's opinion, the Crazy Taco Lady had just been a babbling nuisance as a guide, so basically she and Xander had had to do all the work.

Now Ms. Chase was reluctantly beginning to appreciate Xander's various talents as they'd striven to survive in this hostile reality, having to trust and depend on one another in a way totally beyond that of the last four months in Sunnydale. Trust was a major thing for Cordelia, just as it was with Faith, and didn't come easily. So completely trusting Xander again – what with their bad history – wasn't just some minor little trifle for the one-time ruler of the high school elite.

But she'd trusted Xander's judgment on contacting the rebels, and convincing them that they weren't spies for the demon priests or whatever. 'Reconnaissance-cow-scum', was the charming term the human leader had used. Somehow, some way Harris had done it, convincing the commanding general that he even had some skills and training to offer the group.

"What kind of training?" the rebel named Sasha had demanded.

"Aaarrmy training, sir!" Xander had replied, snapping off a salute.

Cordelia had rolled her eyes at that, but thoughtfully refrained from mentioning her ex-boyfriend must have forgotten practically everything he'd learned during Halloween '97. It wouldn't exactly help their current situation, that was for sure.

Besides, it had given the brunette girl the chance to demonstrate some fighting moves of her own. Cordelia Chase wasn't the helpless female who willingly hid behind the strong gallant men whenever danger lurked these days. And some of what he'd seen had impressed the former high school clown, Cordy was proudly certain of that much.

Her main problem was the rebels weren't exactly interested in mounting a rescue expedition for Angel and Lorne anytime soon. They were too few in number, not to mention completely outgunned in terms of available weapons. The rebel leader had told Xander and herself that no way was he risking anybody's lives for a pair of demons. And since his word was law around here, that was pretty much that.

Finally Cordy found Xander near his campfire. The fires helped keep them warm at night, but the threadbare blankets and rags the rebels had just weren't enough, and so most people huddled together to fight off the cold. Thus the woman sank down next to Harris and wriggled close to share their body heat. "Hey. Where's Fred?"

"Uh, she's bunking with Bartok's group. I think," Xander replied fuzzily, half-asleep.

Cordelia shrugged. "Whatever floats her boat." She pressed up against Xander and his arm automatically brought her close as they snuggled against the chilly night air. "We really are in a whole lotta trouble, aren't we, dorkhead?"

Xander chuckled at the old nickname. "Yeah, I guess. Freezing our asses off in the damp woods, a thousand dimensions from home, not to mention a bunch of demons ruling this world and ready to kill us. Can't believe I'd rather be on the Hellmouth right now."

Cordy chuckled too, pressing herself even further against Xander's body. Suddenly he spoke in a hushed voice, "Cordelia...can we talk?"

"Sure, about what?"

Slowly, finally unburdening himself, Xander explained what had happened to him after he'd arrived in Pylea. How the hyena had taken over, and what that really meant. "Cordy, you weren't part of the Scooby gang when it happened, so you may not know...but back in sophomore year I tried to, uh...rape Buffy after that day at the zoo-"

"Hey, wait up. I heard all about that from Willow! And according to what she said, you were possessed at the time," Cordelia quickly pointed out.

"Yeah. But still, it happened. And despite what Willow and Buffy might think I remember doing it. I remember wanting it, wanting HER, more than anything. I also ate the school mascot raw, and I would have cheerfully eaten Principal Flutie alive as well if I'd been there at the time," Xander replied, a haunted look in his eyes. "And now, I find out the thing which caused to me to act like that...is still inside me, at least partly. I don't wanna take the chance of anything like that ever happening again, Cor. So how do I get rid of that damned thing?"

Cordelia had no answer for him. "Look. We can worry about that when we get back home, okay? Giles'll think of something. For now, let's just try to figure out how to get out of this situation with all of our body parts intact. I need you to keep it together, Dweeb-O. So please, try not to obsess over that stuff till then?"

"Fine, I'll try." Xander sighed, "And by the way, I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For what happened with Willow, way back when. I mean, I apologized for it at least sixty or seventy times a few years ago, but I'm not sure you ever listened then. What with the rebar, and everything. So for the record, I'm sorry. For all of it."

Cordelia tried to pull away, but Xander had her in his grip. "I don't wanna talk about that!" she hissed.

"Fine. I just thought you should know in case we die tomorrow or never make it back home or whatever," Xander let her go

Ms. Chase was suddenly conflicted. That particular pain was something she thought she'd buried a long time ago. But recent events, reinforced by the danger and necessity of relying on her former boyfriend like this, suddenly brought it all rushing back. Finally the woman turned to face him and asked, "Why?"

"Sorry?"

"Why did you do that back then?" Cordelia asked point-blank, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer. "I always wondered. What did Willow give you that I couldn't? I know we fought a lot, Xander, but still...you betrayed me in the worst way imaginable. Why?"

Xander shrugged, his expression bleak and unpleasant. "I've thought about it on and off over the years. But apart from me being a hormonal jackass, I still can't explain what happened during those six weeks. I mean, I knew it was a mistake from the start, and so did Wills...okay, she'd been in love with me ever since kindergarten, so that might explain her part in it. Even if deep down Willow was gay all along, I was still her...man-crush. But as for me..."

Harris paused. "I don't know, Cor, I honestly don't. Like I said, I knew it was wrong, but I just...I couldn't help myself whenever I was around her. It's no excuse, I know, it just is what it is. I even sorta talked with Deadboy about it when he came to town two months ago, but I still can't give anyone a satisfactory answer why I threw away whatever we had together then. Least of all myself."

"Wait, Angel was in Sunnydale recently?" Cordelia looked up, as she hadn't known this. And her heart was currently aching all over again from Xander's confession.

"He came looking for Faith. We met briefly in Buffy's hospital room before he left town again," Xander shrugged. "No big deal."

Reminded of the situation back home, Cordelia asked rhetorically, "I wonder what's going on in Sunnydale right now?" She had no way to know that Faith was in fact beating the crap out of three of Glory's minions known as Jinx, Dreg and Murk. Or that Tara had been brain-sucked and Willow had gone off on a revenge trip, and the brunette Chosen One definitely had her work cut out for her to prevent the redhead getting killed.

Suddenly, Cordelia felt Xander stiffen. "What?" Cordelia demanded at once.

Finally Harris replied, "Oh my God, I can't believe it...Cordy, this is the first time in DAYS that I've thought about Anya! Jesus, it's been less than three months and already I'm starting to forget about her. What kind of man does that make me!"

The young woman knew she had to nip this in the bud at once. "Xander? Listen to me. First of all, we have this big impending death situation hanging over our heads, so I think you can cut yourself a little slack on the whole moral fiber thing. And second...look, I know that I didn't know Anya as well as you did, but I'm pretty sure that she doesn't want you to spend the rest of your life mourning the fact that she left you like that. Don't ya think?"

There was a long silence, as Xander contemplated her words and stared at the flames dancing within the fire. Finally he said simply, "It's late. We should get some sleep, maybe discuss this tomorrow."

With a shrug, Cordelia decided to lay down. Xander quickly followed her, his mind somehow unable to reject the logic of the Chase girl's arguments. Maybe she's right, I just don't know anymore. Hell, I don't even know who or what I am anymore...but if we ever get home, I'm gonna hafta figure a whole lotta stuff out...

Xander sighed and lay there for a while, unable to get to sleep. Cordy fell asleep almost at once though and soon snuggled into his embrace to seek refuge from the biting cold.

He looked down at her, at her gorgeous face so relaxed and peaceful during her slumber, at her long eyebrows resting on her soft cheeks and a lovable pout on her lips. The realization that Cordelia was still so incredibly beautiful suddenly hit Harris like never before.

Think unpleasant thoughts, think unpleasant thoughts... Xander thought almost maniacally, closing his eyes. Okay, being whipped by the demons that way, that's bad. Drusilla doing that to Buffy back then, yeah, yeah, that IS horrible...Snyder in a leather thong – oh dear God, that's TOO lousy to even...

"Mmmm," Cordelia murmured, her leg beginning to run up and down his. If he wasn't so certain she was asleep, Xander would have honestly thought that the buxom brunette was teasing him for sure.

Then all the blood rushed south when those firm magnificent breasts pressed even more firmly against his chest and those very kissable lips parted ever so slightly.

I really am going to Hell for this one day, Xander thought in despair, as he suddenly remembered that impromptu kiss they'd shared in Fred's cave, and his raging hard-on grew even worse. I swear, I really am!

**Pylean rebel encampment**

**The next day**

Cordelia slowly woke up not long after sunrise, feeling all nice and warm on one side. She tried to burrow deeper into the warmth, instinctively curling up closer to it.

"You keep doing that to me, Cor, and Little Xander is gonna get completely revved up and rarin' to go."

Instantly awake, Cordelia fought off the panic she felt. What? Who...oh my God, Xander. Did I actually sleep with... But then she remembered what had occurred last night. No, nothing happened, he wouldn't have. Would he? "Xander?"

"In the flesh," he replied with a soft smile, as he got up and stretched his limbs. "You sleep well? Took me a while, but it now feels as if I slept like a brick."

Oh, thank God. Because hey, if we HAD done it, I would have wanted to remember! The brunette woman rose to her feet as well, noting that most of the rebels already seemed up and about. "I slept okay-"

Just then a crossbow bolt whizzed part Xander's ear, barely avoiding his head by an inch. "XANDER!"

Not far away, the Captain of the Guard backhanded his lieutenant in disgust. "You missed!" He then turned to his men, "Kill them all, except for the cow Lord Silas desires for testing!"

The demons surged forward. The entire camp then exploded into a battle zone as one of the rebels shouted, "Covenant guards!"

Even though the humans had almost been caught with their pants down they still managed to get their weapons out and give as good as they got on the battlefield. Since fighting for your life is always the best motivation to win. Thus Xander and Cordelia fought side by side, along with Fred and the rest of the rebels. Eventually the last of the demons were driven off in the battle of attrition. The Captain of the Guard raged with fury, but still knew when to retreat until the numbers were back on his side.

"All of you grab the wounded and everything else you can, and move! We need to find somewhere else to make camp at once!" the man named Sasha shouted. For the previous rebel leader was now dead and he had effectively inherited the mantle.

Later that afternoon the humans finally found a new place to hide. But out of nowhere Xander, Cordy and Fred were suddenly cornered by Sasha and his men with no chance to run for it.

"Why do the priests want you so badly?" Bartok demanded, looking the trio over.

"What are you talking about?" Xander demanded.

Another rebel held up a crude but recognizable hand drawing of Cordelia's face. "We found this on one of the dead demons. Obviously, that wasn't just a search and destroy mission this morning! So what have you been concealing from us?"

Xander sent a look of confusion to his ex-girlfriend. "Cordy?"

"Hey! I don't know, what are you people accusing ME for?" Cordelia asked in outrage. "I haven't even had any contact with the demons around here, apart from Lorne's family. You know, when I had that stupid vision and had to run for it..."

"Vision?" Sasha asked at once.

"Apparently she gets visions of the future," Fred piped up.

"Yeah, those head-splitting little pesky visuals that Cordy sometimes gets whenever the Powers decide to send her some vital info," Xander added. "What of it?"

The rebels all looked at one another, before Sasha ordered them to lower their weapons. "You're the cursed one!" he then exclaimed.

Cordelia was reminded of what the Deathwok clan demons had called her, days before. "What does that mean, already?"

The rebel leader explained about the prophecy. About how the Covenant of Trombli taught of a coming messiah, a being with the pure sight, who would one day claim the throne and restore the monarchy. "Obviously, the priests think you might be this holy saviour that they've been awaiting."

Xander instantly burst out laughing, before he shut up in the face of Cordelia's pissed-off expression. "Sorry, Cor." Then Harris turned back to Sasha, "So what now?"

The leader seemed to be of two minds about it, but finally made his choice. "We mustn't let the priests get ahold of your friend. Otherwise they'll have her com-shuk with the Groosalugg, let him absorb the visions and then consolidate their power even further."

"What's a Groosalugg?" Cordelia looked horrified.

"What's a com-shuk?" Xander demanded at once.

"Uh, Pylean mating ritual," Fred told him.

"Okay, that's it. We've got to DO something about these freaking assholes!" Cordelia proclaimed in no uncertain terms. "Because I'm not com-shukking with some evil, bloated thing with horns and a tail, or whatever. What, is there a neon sign or something over my head which MAKES demons want to have sex with me?"

"Actually, I think I'm the one who's the demon magnet out of the two of us," Xander said as he winced at the reminder of Willow's 'my-will-be-done' spell. Then Xander winced again in shame, as the man hadn't thought of Anya since last night despite all of his good intentions.

"We can't fight the Covenant. They have the power, they have the wealth, and we don't even have a battle plan," Bartok said to his leader, ignoring Xander's previous comment.

"We could storm the palace gates. They'd never expect that," Sasha ruminated.

"Yeah, but uh, that'd be suicide," Xander interjected. "The demons outnumber us, how many to one?"

"Besides, if the priests think they're in danger of losing their power they'll use their machine to kill every slave with a collar attached," another rebel added.

Xander and Cordelia looked confused till the others explained in detail. "So bottom line, we gotta destroy this machine before they have a chance to do that?" Harris wanted to know.

"But how?" Fred asked.

"Guerilla warfare," Xander explained. "It's the only way. Say we create a diversion, then strike at several different places at once. Then someone comes up from behind while they're distracted, and destroys the machine. Then we get out of there as fast as we can before the demon army kills us."

Sasha looked approvingly at him. "It's a good plan."

Bartok nodded. "I agree."

The rebel leader gestured, "Gather everyone together. As soon as we figure out all the details, we attack!"

**The Imperial Palace, Pylea**

**May 7th 2001**

The war was over, and the humans had won – albeit at a very high cost.

Cordelia had played a key role in the plan, acting as bait to draw out the guards that had been hell-bent on capturing her. Constable Narwek, who had been assisting them with his own forces, had ended up dead in that ambush and good riddance to him.

The Deathwok clan for one wouldn't miss him, that was for sure.

Elsewhere Xander and Fred had snuck into the palace with the aid of some magical disguises, and freed Lorne and Angel. That duo had been cooling their heels in the dungeon for many days now and so were very eager to get out. They had only been kept alive by Silas and his minions because they might somehow prove useful in catching the so-called messiah, anyway.

After being freed the ensouled vampire and his posse had immediately headed for the control room. They caught up with the head priest just as he was about to commit genocide upon learning of the demise of his Captain of the Guard. That battle had been short and to the point, culminating in the destruction of the machine for triggering the slave collars.

And suffice it to say, Silas's headless body wouldn't be missed either.

But that hadn't been the end of the revolution by any means. The fighting had quickly spread throughout the entire kingdom now that the slave collars didn't work anymore. The demons had learned to their dismay that the so-called 'cows' weren't mindless cattle when they turned on their owners en masse, and the body count became astronomical. Not even the Groosalugg had been able to stop it, God rest his soul.

Many parts of Pylea would no doubt stink for weeks from the smell of the dead and the dying.

But this afternoon, a delighted Fred found Angel, Lorne, Xander and Cordelia. "I found it! I found it!"

"Found what?" Angel asked, perplexed as always by the manic mood changes of the Texan woman he had recently met. He and the others were in Silas's old audience chamber, which was currently serving as an ad hoc meeting room.

"Well, Cordelia was right all along. I-I was opening portals but I couldn't tell where. You, you need the priests' formulas to figure that out on this side. And I finally found them here in the books!" Fred explained.

Xander instantly looked pleased. "So we can go home now?"

Cordelia nodded, having talked with Fred earlier and knowing what she'd been up to. "Betcha all we have to do is take these to Angel's car, and have her say the words."

"Well, thank God! Because I don't know about the rest of you, but I've had just about enough of home sweet hell," Lorne grumbled. The guards had constantly jeered at and spat upon him the entire time he'd been incarcerated, after all. "I swear, I'd rather rot in Tarkna than ever come back here again!"

The others ignored him. "Oh, and Xander, I found something else you might be interested in!" the Burkle woman exclaimed.

"What?" he asked.

Fred held out one of the wolf, ram and hart books, which were written in a format known as trionic. "It's a formula of some sort for restoring life energy. This could be exactly what you need to wake up that comatose friend of yours. What's her name again? Muffy? Fluffy?"

"Buffy," Angel and Xander said at the same time, briefly staring at one another in excitement. So maybe THIS is why Cordelia got that vision in the first place? Yeah, I guess it has to be, Harris cogitated.

"Whatever. Let's just say our farewells, and get the heck outta here." Cordy looked somewhat annoyed at the two men's predictable antics regarding her old high school rival, but nonetheless she still stayed extremely close to Xander's side.

**Hyperion Avenue, Los Angeles, California**

**Later that night**

The gang had arrived back in Caritas within Angel's convertible, not long ago. And Fred was looking around as everyone approached the hotel on foot, the former slave still unable to process everything completely. "Are-are you guys sure about all that?" she asked of no one in particular.

Cordelia briefly looked at the other femme. "Trust me. There are tacos everywhere." She took an involuntary sniff and her nose wrinkled up. "Not to mention soap!"

Xander shook his head, Cordelia's tact level was obviously better than before but still needed some work. "It'll be fine, Fred. We'll just rest up here in Angel's place tonight and then we'll head home to Sunnydale in the morning. You're welcome to come with me and Cordy, if you want."

"Or else you could stay here. The old place has been pretty empty ever since...y'know, what happened all those months ago," Angel cut in tentatively.

Cordelia suddenly looked to have lost her good humor, suspecting that remark might be obliquely aimed at her. And the bad memories came back with gusto. "Speaking for myself, I don't think so. 'Cause come sunup tomorrow we're outta here, Angel. It's been a week, God only knows what that hell-bitch Glory has been up to while we've been gone."

"Hell-bitch?" Fred suddenly wrinkled her forehead at Cordelia's comment. "Uh, is there actually any other kind?"

"I refuse to answer that, on the grounds that I actually prefer to have my manly bits still attached to my body," Xander said cynically. Cordy just gave him a quick affectionate slap on the head.

His mood lightening from the somewhat silly remark, Angel just walked to the front doors of the hotel and said, "Okay. Can I say it? On account of I really wanna say it..."

"Say what?" asked Xander curiously.

"There's no place like home!" the ensouled vamp replied, a smile on his face as he quoted from the movie, and they all walked into the Hyperion.

Cordelia looked around and sighed. "Fred, any particular room you'd like? I'm assuming that this place hasn't changed much if any, from when I last scrubbed it out."

Xander glanced at her in mock surprise. "Queen C, doing housework? The world as I know it is doomed!"

"Jerk," Cordelia replied, but without any real venom behind the insult and with a smile tugging at her lips.

"Whatever. Room 215 is still good," Angel offered politely.

Winifred shrugged. "Okay."

"Then I say, let's all get some sleep. I know after Lorne's little nightcap I'm beat," Xander suddenly yawned.

The group split up after going upstairs. Cordelia led Harris away as Angel guided Fred off to her own room. Suddenly Xander wondered, "Uh, guess I forgot to ask before, but Cor – which room am I gonna sleep in tonight?"

The brunette woman just dragged Xander to the room she'd used to use on occasion when under Angel's employ. "You really have to ask after everything we've been through this past week or so?" Cordelia demanded. "We only need one room," she stated, smiling as she shut the door behind them.

"Cordelia..."

"Xander, shut up and listen. When that arrow almost hit you in the head a few days ago? It all suddenly became real clear to me," Cordy said seriously, as she took off her makeshift jacket. "Look, we have a lot between us, and we both know most of it's in the badness column. But from now on I'd like to think more of the good, okay? Fresh start and all that. Which means trust. Which means closeness. Which means only one bedroom."

"Cordy..." Xander started to say again but she stopped him.

"I know we're both too tired to discuss this properly now," Cordy told him. "But later on, we WILL be having a long conversation to figure all this out. Especially our new sleeping arrangements in Sunnydale."

So saying, she quickly got dressed for bed and a hesitant Xander finally followed suit. A short while later, Angel passed by the room. He was dreading the possibility that Cordelia was having sex with Xander right now, given all the looks he'd seen her sending that guy lately.

To his surprise though, the vampire only heard the sound of two humans breathing in deep sleep as he walked on by. Hmm, maybe there's still a chance...

**Sunnydale, California**

**May 8th 2001**

While Xander, Cordelia, and Fred were asleep in faraway Los Angeles, the annual apocalypse had finally come to the Hellmouth.

Given the absence of Anya, Spike and even Xander during the time in question, events had turned out somewhat differently than they otherwise might have with the entire Glorificus situation. In essence, while the white hats had tried to run for it after Glory had learned Dawn was the Key, they had failed even to get out of town. The Knights of Byzantium had unexpectedly attacked before the hellgod had shown up and killed them all. Then Glory had grabbed Dawn and disappeared.

Faith had ruthlessly interrogated the dying General Gregor and the Scooby gang had learned that all Glory wanted to do was use the Key to go home. But the price for letting her do that was an unthinkable one. Hell, literally, would come to Earth once all the barriers separating all the different dimensions out there came tumbling down.

And so it had come to this. The remaining Scoobies had attacked Glory and her minions at a tower constructed by her brainsuck victims. Tara had been restored by Willow's magicks, but not much else had gone right. Glory had easily taken care of the Dagon Sphere before being distracted by Olaf's troll hammer, wielded by Faith. It had been a stalemate...

But then the whole fragile house of cards came crashing down, when one of Glory's worshippers named Doc managed to start bleeding Dawn at the top of the tower. The brunette Slayer finally arrived up there as well, having left a broken and battered Ben behind. She'd never even noticed Giles moving in to finish what she'd started. Faith only had eyes for Doc, who tried to kill her with that damned demon tongue of his the moment he saw her.

"Sorry, gramps, but this Slayer ain't on the menu tonight," she whispered, swinging her broadsword and cleaving the tongue in two.

Doc howled in pain before Faith threw him off the tower. She then hurried over to Dawn. "Shit, little D, are you-?"

"Faith, it's too late. It's already started!"

Indeed, the portal had become activated at precisely the right time from the bloodletting ceremony. Huge bolts of lightning started to spew out of it, as demons appeared in the walls of a nearby building and a dragon flew out of the gateway as well.

After the Slayer released her, Dawn tried to move past Faith. But the Chosen One stopped her, "Hey, what are you doin'?"

"I heard what Glory said. I know about the ritual. I have to stop it. My blood opened it, and the only way to close it is for the blood to stop flowing. Faith, I have to jump," Dawn explained in a rush.

"WHAT?" Ms. LeHane demanded. Who the hell made up this sorta crazy-shit rule?

"I know. God, if only those monks hadn't made me Buffy's sister..."

Somewhere up above Anya intervened once again, revealing the truth to the dark-haired Slayer. One that she had been in denial of ever since coming back into the fold. Something that would help prevent the death of an innocent.

Faith said in wonder, "Wait up, they didn't just make you out of Buffy. They made you out of the Slayer, and that's B and me. We may still have a chance here."

So saying, Faith quickly slashed at her palm and made a wicked-looking cut. Then she pressed her hand to Dawn's side, mingling their blood.

"Faith, what are you doing?" Dawn hissed in slight pain. "I have to jump! Get out of the way!"

"Listen, pip. I know we've never gotten along, but just this once hear me out. If I'm right, you don't have to jump. There's never been two Slayers before. That spell those monk boys did, I'm thinkin' it took stuff from both your big sister and me to make ya human. Hell, look at you; both B and Joyce are blond, and you're brunette. So am I. Ya see where I'm going with this?"

Dawn's eyes widened, as Faith stepped back. "Look, when Jeeves and Boy Toy came to talk to me in prison, the stud gave me a choice. Either I was rehabilitated and one of the good guys again, or I was dead meat when the Council found out about Big Sis and they decided to call a new Slayer. That's when I knew if I was gonna go out, it was gonna be on my terms. Not theirs."

Faith took a step back as Dawn tried to think of what to say. But before she had a chance to say anything the Slayer went on, "Just so you know, this might not work. And if it doesn't, you'll have to jump after all. But if it does? You get to live. So tell B I'm sorry, if she ever wakes up. And that I'll be seeing her on the other side one day."

The latest incarnation of the vampire Slayer wasted no more time. Ignoring Dawn's freaked expression, Faith ran down the platform and took a swan dive off of it, down into the portal.

She hung there, screaming in pain as the sun started to rise. The portal started writhing and spitting out lightning again, before it stopped and started shrinking into oblivion.

Down below, as Dawn watched with tears in her eyes Willow, Tara, Giles and Joyce gathered around Faith's lifeless body in the nascent daylight. It's over. Oh God, she's dead, it's all over now, the Key thought numbly.

**Hyperion Hotel, Los Angeles, California**

**Later that morning**

Cordelia came out of the hotel's small kitchen holding a cup of hot coffee. "Oh God, but I really missed this!" she said to herself.

"You missed coffee?" Angel asked as he saw her.

The brunette woman just sighed and figured she wouldn't waste time getting upset, since she would soon be leaving this place again. "It's not easy to get gourmet coffee in Sunnydale anymore. I might have Xander swing by the store so I can stock up while we're still in town."

Angel tried to act normally as they walked into the lobby. "Or you can just stay in LA?"

"Like I said last night. Not going to happen, Angel," Cordelia said as she sipped her coffee. She leaned against the large check-in counter. "By the way, we're going to take Fred back home with us."

"Have you asked her if that's what she wants?" the vampire wanted to know. "I mean, she did live here in the city before."

"We're not leaving her here," Cordelia replied. They both knew the absent 'with you' part of the sentence wasn't necessary for her to speak out loud.

Angel decided to play his trump card. "Well then, I guess it's a good thing I'm a creature of the night," he told his former employee.

"What?" Cordelia asked, before her eyes went wide and she almost dropped her beverage. "Oh, what did you do? Rob a department store?"

"No, of course not," Angel told her quickly, as he pulled out the cart of designer dresses. "I just thought-"

"What, I was a big enough bimbo that I would simply forgive and forget everything – just because you bought me clothes?" Ms. Chase demanded. "Where the hell did you get a stupid idea like that?"

Angel looked hesitant. "Well...a few months ago, Xander said that back in the day he..."

"Wait up!" Cordelia said, stopping him. "You thought that just because Xander bought me my Prom dress back then, that all you had to do was give me this..." the seer trailed off as she felt one of the dresses. "A Vera Wang!" Cordelia dreamily felt the fine fabric for a moment, before she snapped out of it. "No!"

"Cordy..." Angel started.

"No, no, I'm talking now," the woman told him as she set her coffee down. "Angel, it's over. Look, I don't hate you anymore, and I think I've made that clear lately. But it's not going to go be like it once was between us, ever again. It can't be. There is BLOOD between you and me..." Cordelia trailed off. "Which is kinda ironic I guess, because you're a vampire and all."

She thought for a moment. "I do wish you luck on your quest to find some sort of redemption. You've got a long way to go, and one day, Angel, ya might actually get there. And maybe Buffy will be around waiting for you when that happens, but I won't be. I have a life in Sunnydale now, and you're not part of it. So basically, don't contact me unless it's an emergency, or an apocalypse or whatever."

The vampire went into full brooding mode as Cordelia headed towards the stairs, yelling for Xander to hurry up.

**Sunnydale General Hospital, Sunnydale, California**

**A couple hours later**

Pain. That was the first thing Buffy Summers felt.

The blond Slayer had no idea what was going on. Buffy dimly remembered a very strange sort of dream, where she, Faith and Anya had been standing naked in a field of yellow flowers. A rather cryptic conversation had taken place there, with phrases like "death is your gift" and "counting down from seven-three-oh" having been tossed around, before Faith had disappeared with a small smile. Anya had then suggested she go back before dawn.

But suddenly the fog lifted from her mind, and the memories came back.

Spike! I swear, I'm gonna stake you for this latest stunt you've pulled, chip or no chip. You and that damn 'ho Drusilla. Wait a minute...is this clean sheets I'm laying on? Where am I?

The smell of herbs and incense then assaulted Buffy's nostrils as she coughed and tried to open her eyes. Ugh...what is that?

"She's awake! She's awake!" That was Dawn's voice.

Buffy groaned and tentatively forced her eyes open. The Slayer tried to focus, and somewhat blurrily identified Giles, Joyce, Dawn, Xander, Cordelia, and a brunette woman she didn't know, "Wh...ho..."

But then Buffy spied Willow and Tara with their witch-y paraphernalia and correctly guessed some magic mojo had taken place. "Wha' happen?" the Chosen One slurred, her mouth feeling extremely dry.

Joyce instantly hugged her oldest daughter, with Dawn a close second. "Oh dear God, Buffy, we were so worried that you'd never wake up," Mrs. Summers almost sobbed, the middle-aged woman still finding it hard to believe her baby was finally awake again.

"Huh? Spike, Drusilla..." Buffy managed to get out.

Everyone looked at her and then each other for a moment before Giles stepped up. "Buffy? Don't worry about them, those two are long gone now." The expression on his charge's face prompted Rupert to clarify, "I, uh, I'm afraid you've been in a coma for the last three months or so, and you've only just now woken up."

Buffy looked horrified as she digested the implications of that. "Glory-?" she whispered, not sure if she wanted to know.

"She's gone too," Dawn said immediately. "Faith beat her!"

Now the Slayer looked utterly confused. "Faith?"

Xander stepped forward. "We brought her here to take over for you, while you were sleeping. Buff...I guess there's no easy way to say it, but apparently Faith died just a few hours ago in order to save Dawn and the world. I'm afraid you, me and Cordy here kinda missed out on this year's annual apocalypse."

Awash in a sea of confusion, Buffy Summers just stared at her best male friend, not sure if she was still dreaming.

**Restfield Cemetery, Sunnydale, California**

**A few months later**

Xander Harris stared at the grave marker, which read:

**FAITH LEHANE**

**1982-2001**

**SHE SAVED THE WORLD**

The young man honestly didn't know how he should feel. On the one hand, Harris felt proud of the fact that the young woman he had lost his virginity to had managed to redeem herself in the end, giving her life for Dawn and the other six billion people on the planet. But at the same time, he sadly wished it could have been different somehow, that maybe if he'd been there things would have turned out better.

He sighed, and turned around to head for the Magic Box. He was late for an appointment with Giles and Willow, who wanted to check him out to make sure the last vestige of the Hyena was gone. It was kinda spooky seeing the dramatic increase in his red-haired best bud's magical abilities after that week he'd been gone, but hey, it was Willow. He was supposed to worry.

Besides, Cordelia was no doubt waiting for him as well. By this point he and his old girlfriend had gotten back together again. In the romantic sense of the word, as well as all the others.

Xander didn't deny to himself that he still missed Anya. But he was slowly moving on with his life. He would never forget her, hell he may even name his first daughter (if he ever has one) after her. But he was tired of living in the past and having constant doubts. He was going to focus on the future from now on.

Fred was slowly coming out of her shell more and more. Cordy, Tara, and Willow were bonding by helping the woman come back into the normal world. Angel had seemed to get a few new people in his group for his fight to save LA from the Darkness. He didn't know if he should feel sorry for them or not.

Now as the sun vanished below the horizon, Harris made his way out of the cemetery. But as luck would have it, he ran into a newly-risen vampire, still dirty behind the ears from just having clawed its way out of the grave.

Carrying his cross and stake, the odds were Xander would have quickly dispatched the soulless demon. But the situation was taken out of his hands, when a female figure seemed to come out of nowhere and staked the bloodsucker in the back.

Xander stared at the ashes and then the girl in wonder, before realization quickly set in. "You're Faith's replacement, right?"

The girl just smirked, her Watcher having told her who this guy most likely was. "Kennedy the vampire Slayer, at your service."

Xander suddenly couldn't wait to see how this one would turn out.

The End...

For now


End file.
